Manitoba to send ICU nurses to help CFB Wainwright fire victims in care, premier says

WINNIPEG — With the deaths of four soldiers from CFB Wainwright, Alta., at the forefront of Remembrance Day events across Canada, Premier Wab Kinew said ICU nurses from Manitoba are headed west to help victims of the fatal wildfire who remain in hospital.

Kinew was among thousands attending Winnipeg’s Remembrance Day ceremonies at the RBC Convention Centre on Wednesday.

After laying a wreath honouring veterans and those in service with the Canadian Armed Forces, he laid out the province’s plan to help those injured by the Oct. 17 fire. The Department of National Defence said as of Nov. 4, 25 soldiers remain in hospital.

“This week, we will be sending nurses, ICU nurses with an expertise in treating burn victims to Alberta,” Kinew told the Winnipeg Free Press following the ceremony.

The nurses will be deployed on a volunteer basis to replace nurses from Ontario who have been helping with the response, Kinew said. They will be provided room and board by the Alberta government.

“It’s very moving to see front-line heroes here in Manitoba stepping up to take care of some of our service members who need care in the aftermath of the Wainwright tragedy,” Kinew said. “So we’ll continue to step up.”

The premier said in a world that’s more volatile, Canadians must be a strong voice for peace, but must be ready to stand as a force to those who threaten it.

“The expectation of a strong country like Canada is that we will use our strength to be a force for good and a force for peace,” he said. “There are people out there, like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, that require us to be prepared to fight and to defend freedom.”

He said that’s exactly what the soldiers who died in Alberta were preparing to do, as they were set to be deployed to Latvia as part of a NATO campaign aimed at curtailing Russian aggression.

Those in attendance, many donning military dress uniforms and medals, were asked by military spiritual leaders at the ceremony to remember the fallen service members ahead of a moment of silence that saw the packed room go quiet.

“In a few moments we will stand in silence,” 17 Wing Chaplain Padre Kimberly Barlow told the crowd. “And in that silence, we may find ourselves thinking of different people, different stories and different losses. Yet we are united by a common understanding that service always carries a human cost.”

Each person we honour today was more than a uniform and a name etched in stone. They were family members, friends, colleagues, neighbours,” Barlow said.

“This year, that truth feels especially close as we remember those lost in the tragedy of Wainwright,” Padre Barlow said.

“We remember them as members of our military family,” Barlow said. “Their loss reminds us that service carries not only the distant battlefields, but also the demanding work of training, preparing and standing ready to serve.”

» Winnipeg Free Press