As wildfires become more common and more extreme, the Government of Canada is focused on keeping people safe while strengthening Canada's long-term response and addressing the root cause of these intensified fires: climate change.
Today, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources, Government of Canada officials held a technical briefing to provide an updated forecast for the remainder of the 2023 wildfire season.
The 2023 wildfire season has already been Canada's most severe on record. Current projections indicate that this may continue to be a significantly challenging summer for wildfires in parts of the country.
Most recent projections indicate a continued potential for higher-than-normal fire activity across most of the country throughout the 2023 wildland fire season. This is due to long-range forecasts for warm temperatures and ongoing drought, which are affecting parts of all provinces and territories and intensifying in some regions. For July, warm and dry conditions will increase wildfire risk from British Columbia and Yukon through to western Labrador. During August, the area at risk will stretch from British Columbia through western Quebec.
Following a technical briefing on the updated July wildfire modelling, the Honourable Bill Blair, President of the King's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness; the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health; and Julie Dzerowicz, Member of Parliament for Davenport; and Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, provided an update on the current wildfire situation and on the actions that the Government of Canada is taking to support communities and prepare them for future seasons. The government has already taken key steps to respond to the 2023 wildfire season, such as making additional investments to train more firefighters and provide support to provinces and territories on equipment and deploying Canadian Armed Forces personnel and capabilities. Today, Ministers announced two new steps to strengthen Canada's response. This includes the upgrading of a National Fire Equipment Cache in Banff National Park to act as a central equipment repository for Parks Canada and augment local equipment reserves in national parks across the country. The Ministers also highlighted the announcement of the Canada-Portugal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on wildland firefighting cooperation, which will help strengthen resources sharing between the two countries. Minister Duclos and Dr. Tam also spoke about ways that Canadians can keep themselves safe, including from wildfire smoke, over the course of the summer.
Keeping Canadians safe and healthy is the first priority of the Government of Canada. We are working with provinces, territories, Indigenous communities and our international allies to continue to fight these wildfires while protecting homes, livelihoods and lives.
