{"id":64719,"date":"2025-08-12T19:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T19:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/64719\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T19:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T19:34:14","slug":"canada-vows-more-wildfire-action-as-smoke-sparks-u-s-complaints-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/64719\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada vows more wildfire action as smoke sparks U.S. complaints – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada is committed to doing more to prevent and control devastating wildfires<\/a>, federal officials said Tuesday as the resulting smoke sparks formal complaints and calls for action from U.S. lawmakers.<\/p>\n

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But Corey Hogan, parliamentary secretary to the federal energy and natural resources minister, added the growing spread of blazes and smoke beyond Canada\u2019s borders underscores the need for an international fight against climate change that scientists say is fueling more destructive wildfire seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no people that want to do more about wildfires than Canadians,\u201d Hogan told reporters in Calgary after announcing $45.7 million in funding for wildfire prevention and risk assessment research projects. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen this in the smoke that clogs our cities, we\u2019ve seen this in our communities that are evacuated.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Something that we all need to deal with\u2019: MP addresses U.S. concerns of spreading wildfire smoke\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think this also underlines the international challenges that are brought on by climate change. The consequences do not rest in one jurisdiction, which is why we need to globally tackle this problem, and it\u2019s going to require the work of people across the globe to make the world safer again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A group of Republican state lawmakers from Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota last week filed a formal complaint against Canada to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and the International Joint Commission, a binational organization that resolves disputes on shared water and air quality.<\/p>\n

The Republican lawmakers called for an investigation of Canada\u2019s wildfire management practices and for potential remedies under international law.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKinew accuses group of Republicans of pitching \u2018timber tantrum\u2019 over wildfire smoke\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Republican politicians at other levels of government have also been voicing concerns about Canada\u2019s wildfires.<\/p>\n

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Last month, Michigan Rep. John James sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney saying his constituents are choking on toxic wildfire smoke, after another group of Republican members of Congress expressed similar concerns to Canada\u2019s Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman earlier in July.<\/p>\n

Canada is seeing its second-worst wildfire season on record, with fires burning in a majority of provinces across the country and spreading firefighting resources thin.<\/p>\n

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The research funding announced Tuesday will go toward 20 research projects aimed at strengthening wildfire risk assessments and improving mitigation and prevention measures, the government said.<\/p>\n

Those projects will be funded through Ottawa\u2019s Build and Mobilize Foundational Wildland Fire Knowledge program.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanada commits $45.7M to wildfire research to help assess risk, develop adaptive forestry practices\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Another 10 Indigenous-led projects will also receive funding through the Supporting and Mobilizing Indigenous Fire Knowledge grant program, which seeks to build Indigenous forest management and community protection practices into Canada\u2019s wildfire prevention strategies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is about building a body of knowledge for everybody and applying that knowledge specifically to resist wildfires in those communities most impacted,\u201d Hogan said.<\/p>\n

The $45.7 million total is drawn from previously-announced funding for those two research grant programs.<\/p>\n

Hogan said some of the work done by the projects receiving funding \u201cwill bear fruit nearly immediately\u201d on the current wildfire situation by informing where resources should be better allocated. Most of the work will be forward-looking and help prepare for future seasons, he acknowledged.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere will be some short-term benefits, but it will be really longer term that you\u2019ll see the most significant benefits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The announcement itself was short on details on what specific research will be funded, but Hogan pointed to two Indigenous-led projects in Alberta as examples.<\/p>\n

One project led by the Swan River First Nation is testing a \u201cwildfire risk assessment and scenario exploration tool\u201d that will help incorporate wildfire risk into land management policies and development planning.<\/p>\n

Another project, the Blood Tribe Fire Guardianship Program, aims to develop a network of Indigenous youth and community members to \u201cintegrate cultural burning, habitat restoration, and intergenerational knowledge transfer\u201d into community fire mitigation strategies.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanada faces second-worst wildfire season on record\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The latest figures posted by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) suggest the fires this year have torn through 74,000 square kilometres, an area larger than the size of New Brunswick.<\/p>\n

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That surpasses the next worst season in 1989 and is about half the area burned during the record-setting 2023 season, according to a federal database of\u00a0wildfire\u00a0seasons dating back to 1972.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s fires were also devastating, including the one that nearly destroyed the Alberta\u00a0town of Jasper.<\/p>\n

Natural Resources Canada has estimated that fire suppression costs could double by 2040 as the country faces ever-worsening wildfire seasons, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEveryone is seized with wildfires right now\u201d across all levels of government as the consequences continue to grow, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incumbent on governments across all levels to do what they can to both avoid these things happening in the first place and respond to them as rapidly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CIFFC\u2019s current situation report said there were 719 active fires burning in Canada as of Tuesday, with 165 of them classified as out of control.<\/p>\n

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said in a statement last week that Canada\u2019s recent wildfires offer a \u201cstark reminder\u201d of the countries\u2019 shared challenges, noting the U.S. and Canada have \u201ca long history\u201d of supporting one another in times of crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadians stood with us during the tragic California wildfires earlier this year, and we are committed to standing with Canada now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Wildfires burning across multiple American states, including California, have sent smoke into nearby communities and into Canada in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u2014with files from the Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada is committed to doing more to prevent and control devastating wildfires, federal officials said Tuesday as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,1131,295,66,2845,1133,6090],"class_list":["post-64719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-wildfires","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-u-s-news","tag-weather","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}