Good morning. Canada’s wildfire fighters are stretched thin and need far more resources – more on that below, along with an impromptu cabinet shuffle and a stack of new books to read this fall. But first:
Today’s headlines
- MPs will investigate former defence minister Harjit Sajjan’s use of special forces to rescue Afghan Sikhs
- UN peacekeepers in Lebanon urge de-escalation after heavy airstrikes from Israel
- TD Bank appoints an internal change agent as its next leader, resisting calls for an outsider CEO
Firefighters from Mexico battle B.C. wildfires last year.JESSE WINTER/Reuters
Climate
Feeling the heat
Steel yourself, because I’m about to drop some statistics about Canada’s 2023 wildfire season, which smashed pretty much every record on the books. At one point in June, fires were burning out of control in every province and territory except Prince Edward Island and Nunavut. By the end of September, nearly 18 million hectares had gone up in flames – that’s an area larger than Greece, and six times more than usual. All told, the 2023 wildfires released almost a decade’s worth of carbon dioxide into the air.
In order to battle our worst-ever fire season, Canada had to borrow equipment and firefighters from a dozen countries, including the U.S., Australia, South Africa and Brazil. But climate change is making every new fire season unusually bad – setting 2023 aside, this year will shape up to be the most severe since 1995, in part because of Jasper. And as my colleague Matthew McClearn found in his comprehensive new report, published this morning, Canada doesn’t have enough crews, choppers and water bombers on hand to fight the intensifying threat of wildfires.
When blazes pop up everywhere, all at once, from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, we can’t just keep trading firefighters and aircraft among ourselves. “Sharing resources makes a lot of sense,” said McClearn, an investigative reporter with The Globe’s Energy, Natural Resources and Environment Team. “But Canada seems to be reaching the limits of that strategy now.”
A jumbled approach
To better understand the available resources, McClearn surveyed firefighting agencies across the country. It didn’t exactly prove a straightforward exercise. Most agencies employ, either directly or from private contractors, a hodgepodge of crews and aircrafts. Some staff are permanent; some are seasonal students with limited experience. Some agencies, such as Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources, own their fleet of air tankers; the BC Wildfire Service gets them through short- and long-term contracts instead.
Not every agency was keen to provide McClearn with answers to his surveys. “New Brunswick didn’t even acknowledge my inquiry, and still hasn’t nearly two months later,” he told me. “Newfoundland and Labrador and Parks Canada haven’t provided information, either, so I was unable to get the full national picture.”
The ashes of Jasper last month.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
But the picture he did get doesn’t look great. Firefighters are exhausted and agencies have struggled to recruit new talent. Canada’s fleet of air tankers are also aging out. One wildfire scientist in Edmonton, Cordy Tymstra, told McClearn that “we can’t continue with yesterday’s levels of resources, from back to the eighties, and expect we’ll be able to manage the fire scenario of today.” A 2022 report from the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers underscored the urgent need for “stable investment on a significant scale.”
A fight against time
It seems the federal government heard that warning: Its 2022 budget committed $284-million to provinces and territories over five years for both firefighter training and equipment. Agencies are taking advantage of the influx to attract crews (Ontario offered $5,000 bonuses to fill front-line positions) and purchase aircraft (four new choppers in Nova Scotia alone). But these resources are pricey, and they compete with all manner of other priorities, including public health and education. “Even if agencies do get more resources after a bad fire season, those can be clawed back again after a lull in fire activity,” McClearn told me.
He also pointed out that there’s a limit to what firefighters and planes alone can accomplish, particularly in the face of megafires. “Agencies could beef up their intelligence capabilities to use the resources they have more effectively, or use tactics like prescribed burns to reduce fire risks,” he said. “Nobody seems to think that doubling the number of aircraft and personnel is an optimal solution on its own.”
Whatever the approach, we need to act as fast as our rapidly warming climate, because the rules on the ground have changed. “Traditionally, agencies have essentially sought to put out every small fire before it becomes a large one,” McClearn told me. “But extreme fire behaviour is increasing in many areas, making it more likely that some fires escape and become huge resource hogs. That, in turn, may mean other small fires go unattended and become large ones.” And that puts everything – from our homes and jobs to our tourism industry and climate targets – at risk of going up in flames.
The List
62 new books to read this fall
The Globe and Mail
Canadian fiction? We’ve got Canadian fiction. Biography and memoir? Like you wouldn’t believe. Dionne Brand trains her critical eye on Austen and Bronte; the letters of the late neurologist Oliver Sacks come together in a hefty tome; and there are excellent contributions from Globe writers past (Elizabeth Renzetti) and present (Tanya Talaga, John Ibbitson). Start planning your fall reading list here.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: Treasury Board President Anita Anand will pull double duty as Transport Minister, after Justin Trudeau’s longtime friend and ally Pablo Rodriguez resigned, prompting the cabinet shuffle.
Abroad: In a new BBC documentary, more than 20 former employees of ex-Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed accuse him of harassment and sexual assault.
Counting down: New Brunswickers will head to the polls next month to elect their premier, with Progressive Conservative leader Blaine Higgs issuing the writs yesterday.
Coming back: After almost three years in Europe, Yousuf Karsh’s stolen portrait of Winston Churchill is making its way home to Canada.
Turning in: The stiff price of drinks and high cost of dining out are pushing more Canadians to call it an early night.