Airlink has partnered with Air Canada and the Air Canada\nFoundation to provide travel to Team Rubicon Canada volunteers. The flights\nwill benefit potentially 30 volunteers traveling to British Columbia to help\nlocal families, including Indigenous communities, with clean-up and recovery\noperations after recent wildfires in Lytton. Volunteers flying into Kamloops\nAirport over several weeks will assist community members in removing and\ndisposing of damaged infrastructure, collecting personal belongings from ashes,\nand preparing homes for rebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The support of Air Canada, the Air Canada Foundation,\nand Airlink following the Lytton wildfire has been absolutely critical to our\ndisaster response efforts,” says Bryan Riddell, Chief Executive Officer at\nTeam Rubicon Canada. “Air travel is a significant cost driver during operations,\nso having these flights provided allows our team to mobilize from across the continent\nand maximize impact on the ground.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British Columbia has experienced 1,453 wildfires in 2021,\nwith 262 wildfires currently active in the province. The unprecedented scale\nand scope of these wildfires in British Columbia have required inter-provincial\nand international assistance. The Team Rubicon volunteers, also known as\n\u201cgreyshirts,\u201d are responding to a direct request from the local government for\ntheir specialized response capabilities, drawing on their experience in\nresponding to the Ft. McMurray Wildfires in Alberta in 2016. Their initial team\nformed the core Emergency Operations Centre, working closely with the Chief\nAdministrative Officer and Recovery Manager as well as Lytton’s Mayor and\nCouncil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAir Canada, the Air Canada Foundation, and Team Rubicon\nCanada have been great long-time partners of Airlink, and we are delighted that\nwe could bring these organizations together to mount such a large and important\nmission,\u201d said Steven J. Smith, President, and CEO of Airlink. \u201cThe fires in\nBritish Columbia rival those on the US West Coast, and yet they\u2019ve garnered\nvery little media attention. Every flight that we support saves more than\n$1,200 CAD in travel costs, as well as saving Team Rubicon time in\ncoordination, making this a meaningful contribution towards long-term recovery\nby Airlink, Air Canada and its foundation.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring an extraordinary time like no other, that saw\nheartbreaking wildfire devastation in the middle of a global pandemic, the\nimportance of continuing to help communities in need remains one of the Air\nCanada Foundation\u2019s priorities. Our support of Airlink and Team Rubicon\nCanada\u2019s important work by transporting specialized volunteers across Canada to\nassist affected Canadians and local governments will help communities recover\nand rebuild,\u201d said Val\u00e9rie Durand, spokesperson for the Air Canada Foundation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first wave of 17 Team Rubicon volunteers traveled from\nvarious locations across Canada and new waves will follow weekly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lytton Creek wildfire began on June 30, 2021, just south\nof the village of Lytton in British Columbia, Canada. The fire moved upward at\na speed of up to 20 kilometers per hour, exploding several propane tanks upon moving\ninto Lytton. Residents were evacuated within minutes without time to collect\nbelongings. The village’s 250 residents, as well as 1,500-2,000 First Nations\nresidents in the area, were heavily impacted by the wildfire\u2019s damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Air Canada has been a partner of Airlink for several years.\nThis latest mission is the largest donation of flights to an Airlink NGO\npartner from Air Canada and the Air Canada Foundation for a single program to\ndate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Airlink has partnered with Air Canada and the Air Canada Foundation to provide travel to Team Rubicon Canada volunteers. The flights will benefit potentially 30 volunteers traveling to British Columbia to help local families, including Indigenous communities, with clean-up and recovery operations after recent wildfires in Lytton. Volunteers flying into Kamloops Airport over several weeks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/airlink-SIFTING-2-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19733,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19731\/revisions\/19733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}