OTTAWA — A Senate committee is urging the federal government to overhaul Canada’s approach to wildfires, warning the country is facing a growing national crisis driven by increasingly destructive fire seasons.
The Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry says three consecutive record-breaking wildfire seasons have demonstrated existing systems are no longer adequate to respond to the scale of the threat. The committee says wildfires are becoming a major economic, public health and social challenge requiring urgent, coordinated action.
The report recommends creating a federal office to co-ordinate wildfire preparedness and emergency response, establishing a national fleet of firefighting aircraft, expanding investments in new technologies such as drones and satellite monitoring, and strengthening Indigenous-led wildfire management.
The committee also calls for a national wildfire hazard mapping program, greater investment in FireSmart initiatives, updated building codes to improve wildfire resilience, enhanced support for volunteer firefighters, and more responsive financial assistance for agricultural producers and forest-dependent communities affected by wildfires.
The report notes Canada has averaged more than 5,000 wildfires annually over the past decade. It says the 2023 fire season alone burned 14.6 million hectares, forced more than 232,000 people from their homes and strained firefighting resources across the country.
Committee members say wildfire management requires stronger collaboration among federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous governments to better protect Canadians, critical infrastructure and key industries before disasters occur.
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