The Canadian prime minister defended his government’s response as Ontario battled 136 active wildfires, First Nations leaders reported inadequate evacuation support and American lawmakers demanded stronger forest-management measures.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to growing criticism over his government’s handling of widespread wildfires by arguing that climate change is a shared international responsibility and calling attention to differences between Canadian and American clean-energy policies.
Carney made the remarks Thursday during a news conference in Ontario as uncontrolled fires burned across the province, destroyed remote communities and sent thick smoke into the American Midwest and Northeast.
Millions of U.S. residents were advised to remain indoors Thursday to avoid exposure to wildfire smoke. The deteriorating air quality has intensified criticism from American lawmakers, who accuse Canada of failing to reduce wildfire risks through forest thinning, fuel removal and prescribed burns.
Carney’s remarks, shared in a video from the news conference, represented his first public response to the latest wave of outrage in the United States.
“Now we’re focusing on investing in clean energy,” Carney said in French. “In the United States there’s prohibitions now against clean energy — for example, wind energy is one example.”
In an additional video of his response to U.S. lawmakers, Carney said Canada was maintaining its international climate commitments while the United States was reducing its involvement.
“Secondly, Canada is maintaining our efforts on the world’s scale and the U.S. is reducing their efforts globally [on climate change], so, yes, climate change is the responsibility of everyone… including the United States,” Carney said.
Carney did not identify specific measures he wanted Washington to adopt to address the current fires. He also did not explain how expanded wind-energy development would contain active wildfires or reduce the accumulation of combustible material in Canadian forests.
Critics of offshore wind development have raised separate concerns about its potential effects on marine environments.
Wildfires have long been a natural part of the summer season across Canada’s vast forests. Indigenous land-management practices historically included controlled burns and the removal of dead branches, dry undergrowth and other material capable of fueling larger fires.
Critics argue that Canada’s retreat from active forest-management policies during the past decade has allowed fires to grow larger, more destructive and more polluting.
Canada also lacks a federal organization comparable to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to an analysis calling for a centralized national emergency-management agency.
The country similarly has no national firefighting authority, leaving provincial governments primarily responsible for preparing for and responding to major fires.
Canada’s Liberal government has repeatedly attributed the worsening wildfire seasons to climate change when confronted with demands for greater federal involvement in forest management, emergency response and assistance for affected First Nations communities.
The latest fires intensified dramatically during the past week. Ontario officials had documented 136 active wildfires by Wednesday evening.
Many of the fires were burning near isolated areas populated predominantly by indigenous communities. Local leaders said residents received inadequate support with evacuation, temporary housing and other emergency needs.
The Namaygoosisagagun First Nation was destroyed Monday, forcing residents to escape the advancing flames in small boats.
“We lost everything,” Chief Helen Paavola told The Globe and Mail.
Paavola said her request for evacuation assistance from Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources was not answered before the fire overtook the settlement. Footage subsequently showed the northern Ontario community destroyed.
Paavola was not alone in criticizing the official response.
Lise Vaugeois, a lawmaker from the left-wing New Democratic Party, said she received little assistance when she contacted Ontario’s Ministry of Emergency Preparedness.
“Basically I got blown off by the Ministry of Emergency Preparedness, saying somebody in each municipality is in charge and go talk to them,” Vaugeois told the Toronto Star.
The accounts from First Nations leaders and provincial officials have added to questions about whether Canada’s decentralized emergency system can adequately respond to increasingly large and simultaneous fires.
Criticism is also escalating in the United States as smoke continues crossing the border and affecting heavily populated areas.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, announced Thursday that he planned to draft legislation imposing sanctions on Canada over the smoke emergency.
Moreno shared photographs of severe haze in Ohio and described the cross-border pollution as an “atrocity” in a post announcing the proposed legislation.
Four Republican members of Michigan’s congressional delegation also sent Carney a letter Wednesday demanding concrete changes to Canada’s wildfire-prevention policies.
Reps. Jack Bergman, John James, Lisa McClain and John Moolenaar accused Canadian officials of ignoring repeated warnings about inadequate forest thinning, prescribed burning and fuel reduction, according to a report on their demands.
“We were told last year that this would be treated with urgency. It was not,” the lawmakers wrote. “We were told the causes, chronic under-investment in forest thinning, fuel reduction, and prescribed burns, along with inadequate enforcement against arson, were being addressed. They were not, or not adequately enough to matter to the people we represent.”
The lawmakers asked Carney to identify specific investments made since the previous wildfire season and explain how provincial officials would be held responsible for inadequate preparation.
“What funded, measurable steps has your government taken since last summer to reduce fuel loads and wildfire risk in the provinces responsible for the smoke reaching the American Midwest?” they wrote. “What accountability exists for provincial leaders who treat this as someone else’s problem? And what will genuinely be different by this time next year, rather than another season of statements followed by the same result?”
Carney’s response placed the dispute within the broader debate over global climate policy rather than detailing new forest-management, firefighting or evacuation measures.
His remarks are unlikely to settle the growing controversy as Ontario communities confront active fires, displaced First Nations residents seek assistance and American officials demand relief from another wave of hazardous Canadian smoke.
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