Fire departments say they do not have the resources, personnel or equipment to battle an increasing number of forest fires exacerbated by climate change that often encroach on sprawling urban areas, and they are calling on Ottawa to create a federal agency to co-ordinate the response.
The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs released its annual report Monday surveying the core needs of the 3,200 volunteer and professional fire departments it represents as its leadership travelled to Ottawa to meet with politicians this week. The group’s main request of MPs and senators is that they help create a National Fire Administration to help firefighting agencies improve their ability to respond to emergencies, adequately serve new housing developments and prepare for risks posed by lithium batteries as more people electrify their cars, CAFC president Ken McMullen said.
Chief McMullen, who leads the municipal department in Red Deer, Alta., said climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires destroying communities such as Jasper and a federal agency would help manage the response to massive emergencies. Right now, a dozen or so federal departments are responsible for various aspects of firefighting across the country. The chief estimated it would cost only $2-million to $3-million to create and run such an organization, but that cost could increase if a national firefighting force was created, as experts recommended after 2023’s record-breaking wildfire season. He had no estimate for how much that could cost.
“It’s pretty disappointing that it’s often easier to get firefighters from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia to fight fires in Canada and we still struggle with interoperability between provinces and territories,” he said in a phone interview from Ottawa Monday. “A National Fire Administration would start to close that gap.”
Joanna Kanga, press secretary for the federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness, said in a statement that Ottawa is working closely with firefighters to improve their capabilities, noting provinces and territories own and manage 90 per cent of Canada’s forests.
Her statement did not say whether her government supports the chiefs’ request for a new national agency. But, Ms. Kanga said, the federal government already provides assistance when a province or territory is overwhelmed by an emergency, with Public Safety Canada’s operations centre ensuring “close, timely and effective coordination in preparing for and responding to all hazards, including fires.”
Chief McMullen said his firefighting organization is meeting with government representatives and other politicians on Tuesday.
The Globe and Mail recently reported that the sharing of firefighters, water bombers and other resources reached its breaking point this summer and last, when Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which co-ordinates the transfer of personnel and equipment coast to coast, reported that demand for resources was “extreme.”
Fire seasons are getting increasingly destructive, but 2023 was particularly bad. That spring and summer, Canada used firefighters and equipment from the United States, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, France, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Brazil, South Africa and South Korea. More than 7,300 people were mobilized, more than double the previous record.
Meanwhile, municipal departments in many Canadian cities have been forced to pitch in on wildfire front lines while contending with threats to communities such as Halifax, Edmonton and Vancouver. The CAFC’s annual survey of its members, released Monday, found 90 per cent of fire departments across the country were involved with responding to a wildfire in some capacity, but only half had the equipment necessary to “meet the needs for wildfire season.”
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“The data shows Canada will not be ready for wildfire season 2025, nor for the convergence of events associated with rapid housing development, the potential of communities losing their fire protection rating, lithium-ion batteries, explosives and aging equipment,” the organization said in a news release.
Fixed budgets for wildland firefighting in large provinces such as Ontario, B.C. and Alberta have neared $200-million or more in recent years, even before additional costs are incurred during increasingly busy fire seasons. Meanwhile, the CAFC points out, the cost of four major emergency events, including the wildfire that destroyed parts of Jasper, reached $7.7-billion in insurance losses, exceeding the total budgets of all fire departments in Canada by nearly $2-billion.
Mike Flannigan, the British Columbia Innovation Research Chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, welcomed the call from the fire chiefs for a more co-ordinated approach to battling blazes of all kinds, noting there is a need for an agency in Canada akin to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the United States.
Creating such an organization and deploying federal resources more proactively will cost lots of money, probably billions of dollars, he said. But, Dr. Flannigan argued, the health and safety of Canadians is a federal responsibility and Ottawa is already on the hook for disaster relief after communities burn.
“It’s complicated, it’s not easy and it’s going to be expensive, but if it saves, from a fire perspective, one Jasper, one Fort McMurray, one Slave Lake, one Lytton – it more than pays for itself,” he said.