Dozens of wildfires continue to rage across Ontario’s north as First Nation’s leaders and opposition politicians brought their calls for a public inquiry and significant reforms to the province’s wildfire response to Queen’s Park on Thursday.
The demands came as Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers defended their government’s efforts to fight the fires, but made no promises to deliver the sweeping public review.
The province is enduring its worst-ever wildfire season and over 2,000 people are currently evacuated from their homes. Several First Nations communities have been destroyed by the fires. The chiefs of six communities gathered at Ontario’s legislature to call for a probe into the provincial response, repeating a message they delivered last week in Thunder Bay.
“The crisis is so severe right now, and I can’t even imagine next year,” Whitewater First Nation Chief Pauline Drake said. “We need to have a plan. We need to have the resources available.”
Ontario wildfire evacuees frustrated with provincial response
Whitewater First Nation, which is about 250 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, was destroyed by the wildfires earlier this month. Drake said she and other community members have yet to return to survey the damage.
Drake said the community received no notice from the province about the approaching wildfires and was forced to evacuate so quickly they could not bring along cherished belongings or important paperwork.
They’ve lost their homes and it will take years to rebuild the fly-in community, she added.
“We’re in the fire zone, we always had that impact over the years,” Drake said. “But this is the worst, and it’s going to continue to get worse.”
First Nation chiefs call for public inquiry into Ontario government’s wildfire response
Chief Russell Wesley of the Cat Lake First Nation said his community was evacuated on July 14. The province needs to hold a public inquiry to learn from what’s gone wrong with its response, he said.
He’d like to see improved real-time fire monitoring, establishment of a First Nations Wildfire Authority to help prevent and fight fires, and a permanent economic recovery and compensation fund.
“Ontario is burning, and there’s no end in sight, and there’s no strategy,” he said.
Earlier Thursday, Progressive Conservative ministers defended Ontario’s response, but resisted calls for a deeper probe. Natural Resources Minister Mike Harris said their first concern is fighting existing fires, and an annual “after-action” review will take place at the end of the season in October.
“Once we get through the fire season, just like we do after every fire season, we go through what’s happened well, what hasn’t worked the best with our teams,” Harris said.
There are 159 active wildfires burning in the province, down from nearly 200 early this month. The province says 30 of those fires are considered out of control. Crews in the province have extinguished 80 fires.
Call with Ont. minister cut short after questions about wildfire response
Ontario’s evacuations of 14 communities have been criticized for poor communication and co-ordination. Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response Jill Dunlop defended that work.
“Evacuations, especially in these circumstances, are nothing short of traumatic. Our team is doing all we can to support all those who have been evacuated,” she said.
Ontario has its own wildfire responders, approximately 640 FireRangers, stationed in northern Ontario. Four or five member crews travel by air, land or water to suppress and contain wildfires.
Harris has said the province had sufficient resources in place to fight the fires at the beginning of the season.
The province has 156 crews fighting the wildfires, and additional firefighters from other provinces have been helping with the effort in recent weeks. On Thursday, 100 firefighters from Mexico arrived in Ontario to bolster the provincial response.
In a recent interview with CBC News, the chair of the union that represents the FireRangers said the government has struggled to recruit and retain the workers for years. Jeremy Rouse estimates that as many as 250 crews are needed to fight wildfires each season, a figure the province has disputed.
“That is coming from seasoned wildland staff because they know the geography of northern Ontario,” said Rouse, OPSEU Chair of the Ministry Employee Relations Committee for the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Opposition leaders have been critical of the government response for weeks, calling on the government to hire more crews and increase its wildfire budget. Ontario says it has doubled response spending from $75 to $150 million a year, and will spend more as needed to address each season.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Ontario was not ready for wildfire season and will need the power of a public inquiry, and its ability to compel testimony, to understand why.
“Whoever is going to actually hold that inquiry and is going to have that responsibility,” she said.
More than 80 wildfires extinguished in Ontario in past 2 weeks: minister
First Nation chiefs call for public inquiry into Ontario government’s wildfire response
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said his party also supports calls for a public inquiry.
“Public safety is the primary responsibility of government,” he said. “We have a public safety emergency, and clearly, we’re not ready.”
Meanwhile, Ontario’s Auditor General Shelley Spence said in a letter to Fraser on Thursday that her office is in the process of conducting a wildfire management audit. It will follow up a 2022 report from the auditor’s office that identified weaknesses with the province’s forest fire management plan.
The update will be released in 2027.
