Parliamentary Committee Notes: Opening Remarks for the Minister

Mr. Chair, honourable members and colleagues, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak about the Government's emergency preparedness efforts with respect to wildfire preparedness and management.

Just as we have seen in past summers, this year we witnessed the devastating destruction that wildfires bring to our forests and communities.

Over 5 million hectares have burned so far.

As of September 25^{Footnote 1}, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre's National Preparedness Level has been lowered to 1, meaning conditions are no longer favourable to support significant wildfire activity in most of the country. The potential for emerging wildfires is expected to remain minimal.

There are currently 445 active fires and 65 are out of control.

So far this year, there have been 5,374 fires.

To prepare for the wildfire season this year, Public Safety Canada worked steadily with our various partners – provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous partners, NGOs, academia, and the private sector.

As part of these efforts, I personally hosted roundtable discussions with our various partners – in regions right across Canada.

Our conversations touched on the importance of capacity building and maintaining our response readiness across the country.

We also touched on how we need to better integrate Indigenous emergency management into our preparedness planning.

These conversations were critical to helping us plan and coordinate this year's wildfire planning, response, and recovery efforts. They also set the stage for our future work together.

As Honourable members are aware, Public Safety Canada's Government Operations Centre is the lead for federal response coordination for emergency events.

Throughout the wildfire season, the team has worked non-stop to respond to emergencies in support of communities all across Canada. This, of course, includes our efforts in Jasper and in support of significant evacuations in a number of Indigenous communities.

The Government Operations Centre mobilized its event response team in April and the team continues to monitor and report on wildland fire events.

When wildfires threatened the municipality of Jasper on July 22, 2024, the federal government received and approved a request from Alberta for Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) supports. Approximately 25,000 community members were evacuated.

Over the course of the 2024 wildfire season, the federal government received two additional requests for federal assistance from Alberta – all in support of the community of Jasper.

Federal support has since included wildland firefighting resources, humanitarian and logistical supports, and assistance from the Canadian Armed forces.

The collaborative spirit and shared commitment in Canada to manage our fires together is, in many ways, our greatest asset in the fight against wildfires.

In addition to federal assistance, 850 firefighters were deployed to Jasper from other regions in the province and across the country.

We also called in additional aid from our international partners. Over 790 firefighters arrived from Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, South Africa, and Mexico, to support Alberta and other provinces in High Level areas.

At this time, the wildfire situation in Alberta is stable and the response is being effectively managed at the provincial level.

Although we are now on the other side of peak summer temperatures, we continue to remain vigilant.

We also continue to work on emergency preparedness measures with all of our partners, to further strengthen our resilience in the future.

The Government is striving to create a more resilient and sustainable approach to emergency management that will help Canada prepare for, mitigate, respond to and recover from disasters such as wildfires.

That is why the Government of Canada developed the Country's first National Adaptation Strategy to support a shared vision for a resilient Canada.

The Strategy recognizes it will take a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to tackle climate change and extreme weather, and we are committed to continuing this important work to keep Canada safe.

In closing, I'd like to thank all emergency responders for their tireless efforts on the front lines and behind the scenes.

The Government – and all Canadians – are immensely grateful for their courage and dedication.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I look forward to my colleagues' questions.

Date modified:

2025-01-23