The Northwest Territories is changing its firefighting strategy this season to rely less on crews from other jurisdictions in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The government plans to spend nearly $4 million more than expected on wildfire management this year, according to 2020-2021 supplementary budget documents. As of Tuesday afternoon there had been 16 wildfires reported, affecting 4,689 hectares. - Richard Olsen, N.W.T. wildfire operations managerOf those fires being fought on Tuesday, one was about 40 kilometres east of Hay River, N.W.T., and 3.5 hectares in size.

Source: CBC News June 24, 2020 10:52 UTC