Parliamentary Committee Notes: Canadian Wildfires
Issue
To inform on the wildfire situation in Canada, in anticipation of the 2024 wildfire season, and wildfire resources.
Proposed Response:
- The Government Operations Centre (GOC), on behalf of the Government of Canada, is the lead for federal response coordination for emergency events affecting the national interest and works in close collaboration with federal organizations, non-governmental organizations and provincial emergency management partners.
- The 2023 wildfire season was the worst fire season in Canadian history with over 15M hectares burned. This is more than double the previous record and six times more than the 10-year season average. All levels of government and thousands of wildfire fighters here and from around the world, worked together to protect Canadians.
- In anticipation of the upcoming wildfire season, key partners across Government are collaborating to once again ensure a robust preparedness strategy, leveraging subject matter expert analyses and lessons learned from previous seasons.
- The risk and potential severity of wildfires are influenced by a combination of factors such as temperature and climate trends like the ongoing El Niño effect, drought conditions, and snow cover variability.
- It is important to consider these indicators with caution. While they provide valuable insights, drawing definitive conclusions at this stage may be premature.
- The reality is that we can expect the frequency and intensity of climate-driven hazards such as wildfires to continue increasing and critical steps must be taken to mitigate their devastating impacts.
- Canada continues to make significant proactive wildfire investments. Budget 2022 included over $500 million to support provinces, territories, and Indigenous communities to purchase firefighting equipment, train wildland firefighters, incorporate Indigenous traditional knowledge in fire management, and to deliver and operate a new wildfire monitoring satellite system.
- In terms of the 2024 wildfire season, as of September 25, 2024, the Canadian Inter-Agency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC) National Preparedness Level has been reduced to level 1, meaning conditions are no longer favourable to support significant wildfire activity in most of the country and the potential for emerging wildfires is expected to remain minimal.
- There are with a total of 227 Active wildland fires, 36 out of control fires, 56 being held and 135 under control – this is a significant decrease in fire activity, reflecting the wind down of the wildfire season.
- While not as extreme as 2023, the 2024 wildfire season is still among the worst year to date in term of areas burned. The initial numbers are confirming the analysis that we presented this past March. The initial analysis predicted that a lack of precipitation during the winter of (23/24) and drought conditions along with higher-than-normal temperatures would contribute to an overall elevated wildfire risk in the spring of 2024.
- So far in 2024, we experienced 5,374 wildfires with 5.3 million hectares burned. The effects were felt most in the west where BC, AB, NWT, and Sask had a combined total of 3,501 fires (65% of total) accounting for 3.7 million hectares burned (70% of total) this season.
- Overall there were six Requests for Federal Assistance coordinated to support, Alberta, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador.
- This year's wildfires required the engagement and mobilization, through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), of 1,592 domestic firefighters and 792 International firefighters, that came to assist from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, the United States, and Costa Rica.
- Additionally, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) assisted with 349 personnel that provided support for a total of 41 days over this season.
- Evacuations affected over 59,000 people including 15,413 first nations.
Responsive lines (if prompted)
- Emergencies are managed first at the local level. If municipal and local governments need assistance at the local level, they request it from the province or territory. If the emergency overwhelms PT capacity, the province or territory may seek assistance from the federal government through a Request for Federal Assistance (RFA).
- We maintain continuous communication with our federal and provincial partners, including Indigenous communities, as well as with NGOs.
- The 2023 wildfire season was the worst fire season in Canadian history with over 17M hectares burned. This is more than double the previous record and six times more than the 10-year season average.
- The 2023 wildfire season saw 18 RFAs put into place over the period of May to September, and necessitated extensions to seven of these. The Government Operations Centre (GOC), on behalf of the Government of Canada, is the lead for federal response coordination for emergency events and is committed to the prevention of, response to and recovery from wildfire events.
Background
The Government Operations Centre (GOC) is mandated, on behalf of the Government of Canada, to lead and support response coordination of events affecting national interest. It is an interdepartmental response-focused asset of the Government of Canada, working in support of deputy heads, departments and agencies at the national (strategic) whole-of-government level.
Each year, in consultation with partners, the GOC completes a comprehensive risk assessment and planning process in advance of flooding and the wildland urban interface seasons. The final outcomes includes contingency plans to outline a coordinated structure for an integrated federal response to flooding or wildfire events, in support of the provinces and territories (PT), for regions of concern.
In the past few years, the Minister of Public Safety, on behalf of the federal government, has accepted increasing numbers of Requests for Assistance (RFAs) for relief efforts from events including the recent impacts from Hurricane Fiona, Atmospheric River events, and the 2023 wildfires.
In addition to the multitude of existing federal investments in wildland fire prevention and response, many new investments are launching including the Firefighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate program, which is providing $256 million over five years (starting in 2022-2023) to support PTs to strengthen fire management capacities and capabilities across the country by facilitating the purchase of wildland firefighting equipment to increase capacity to respond and prepare for wildland fires. Though this agreement, on 07 Sep, it was announced that more than $65 million in federal funding has been committed for six agreements to 6 PTs (AB, BC, NS, SK, NT, YK).
In addition, the Training Fund portion of the program committed $28 million over 5 years, which has garnered important result including through the now concluded two-year Training Pilot that focused on providing support to Indigenous communities and organizations to train firefighters and to better understand the needs and barriers. In December 2023, a new call for applications for the Training program opened. While the priority will continue to support Indigenous needs other project proposals are eligible in the areas of wildland firefighter training, community wildfire protection training, and youth wildfire training.
Requests for Assistance
The GOC coordinates formal RFAs from the federal government and PTs and liaises with key organizations such as the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and non-governmental organizations.
When the emergency involves a First Nation (FN) community, FN leadership, depending on relevant emergency management agreements, we will work in collaboration with their PTs and/or ISC or regional officials, to assess the emergency and propose a response. If a resolution is not possible at the regional level, a request for assistance may be sought.
- Date modified: