Backgrounder: Wildland Fires

Impacts of wildland fires in Canada

Wildland fires can damage and destroy buildings and infrastructure, cause evacuations because of fire or smoke, interrupt land-based activities including traditional land uses, impact health through widespread smoke, and more. At the same time, wildland fires are ecologically necessary in many of Canada's forests.

Wildland fires depend on the interaction between climate, weather, fuel (e.g., grasses, shrubs, forests), an ignition source, and topography (e.g., mountains, valleys, rivers, oceans, etc.). They can be planned or unplanned. Prescribed, or intentional burns can help manage fire risk, protect communities and people from direct property damage, and keep ecosystems healthy. However, unplanned fires can threaten and harm ecosystems, people, and the economy, and have indirect impacts like increasing the risk of landslides and flooding. Wildland fires have immediate and lasting mental health impacts for people and communities that have been evacuated, emergency service providers, and first responders. Not all communities are impacted by wildland fires in the same way. For example, many Indigenous communities are at higher risk and experience more severe impacts than non-Indigenous communities. For example, First Nation reserves and communities with a primarily Indigenous population represent 5% of the population, but experience 42% of wildland fire evacuation events.Footnote 1

Between 2016 and 2021, we saw some of the most expensive and damaging wildland fires in Canada's history, including the 2016 Fort McMurray fire, which caused over $7 billion in direct and indirect losses. Experts predict that total suppression costs associated with wildland fires in Canada could exceed $1.4 billion per year by the end of the century.Footnote 2 This is because response and recovery costs, socio-economic losses, as well as negative health impacts and community evacuations due to wildland fires and smoke are all on the rise.

The National Risk Profile's findings on wildland fires

The risks from wildland fires in Canada are expected to increase in the future for a number of reasons:

The National Risk Profile found that there is a need to enhance collaboration across all sectors of society to build resilience to wildland fires. The complexity of wildland fire risk calls for multidisciplinary approaches. This includes making links between disciplines and sectors traditionally outside the wildland fire community such as infrastructure, insurance, finance, architects and builders, regulators and planners and healthcare. It is also noted that wildland fires have become a leading cause of air pollution and its' associated health burden in Canada over recent years, and that smoke can disperse over large geographical areas impacting human health near and far.

There are also gaps in public awareness of wildland fires, and more focus on communicating steps Canadians can take to help reduce their risks from wildland fires is needed. Programs such as those offered through FireSmart Canada, that aim to help Canadians build resilience to wildland fires, are one means of addressing this gap. Federal efforts aim to increase awareness of wildland fire smoke and provide information to help mitigate exposures and health risks. For example, various programs provide air quality monitoring and forecasting of wildfire smoke, air quality alert systems and messaging, and guidance for individuals, public health officials, and emergency response authorities.

There is also inadequate inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in wildland fire management and response. Building collaborative mechanisms for western science and Indigenous knowledge is key. Inclusion of Indigenous peoples in joint decision-making, integrating traditional approaches, methods and diverse Indigenous knowledge is important to transform wildland fire management practices in Canada.

Canada's wildland fires risk reduction plans and actions

The Government of Canada has invested in enhancing wildland fire management practices in Canada by funding various initiatives for prevention, awareness building and emergency response management, as well as funding efforts to increase overall coordination and collaboration with partners in wildland fire management.

The Government of Canada has convened and supported various discussions and formal dialogues with partners across the country, and provided $346.1 million in Budget 2022 to expand support to provinces and territories to buy equipment and to train 1,000 wildland firefighters. The federal government has also invested in new wildland fire risk mapping, and $169.9 million under Budget 2022 for WildFireSat, Canada's first satellite system for monitoring wildland fires.

In fall 2022, as part Canada's National Adaptation Strategy, the Government of Canada committed $284 million over five years to enhance the FireSmart Canada program, which provides information to Canadians on how to prepare for a possible fire event, build foundational knowledge, and establish the Centre of Excellence in Wildfire Innovation and Resilience.

In 2021, Canada developed the National Guide for Wildland-Urban Interface Fires to help improve the resilience of buildings, infrastructure and communities. The Canadian Council of Forest Ministers endorsed their Wildland Fire Management Working Group - Action Plan 2021-2026, which includes concrete steps to shift fire management focus from forestry-centric to a whole-of-society perspective. For example, one of the steps in the action plan is improving Canadian's understanding of wildland fire risks by developing tools and mechanisms that give Canadians access to accurate wildland fire risk, threat and impact information so they know how to get prepared and what to do during a wildland fire event. The action plan recognizes that everyone should participate and coordinate efforts to effectively live with wildland fires through prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Many of the action plan's steps also recognize and call for the inclusion of Indigenous partners, knowledge and cultural practices with fire to strengthen Canada's approaches to land management, landscape resilience and adaptation.

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