The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Saskatchewan government is opening its wallet to modernize the fleet of aircraft used to fight forest fires in the northern part of the province. The government plans to spend $42 million over the next four years ? and around $200 million long-term ? to purchase new planes and upgrade infrastructure such as hangars and runways. "We know the incidence of forest fires are going up and the time that it takes to keep these planes in good shape is also going up," Environment Minister David Forbes told CBC. "We need to make sure that our planes can meet the challenges of maintaining a healthy forest." The fleet serves over 35 million hectares of forest, more than half of all the land in Saskatchewan.
