The federal government says Canada could face another destructive wildfire season because of an unusually warm winter, widespread drought conditions and a forecast of above-normal temperatures in the months ahead.
Officials said during a technical briefing Wednesday that more dry, hot weather is expected this spring and summer, putting much of the country at greater risk of wildfires.
Several regions, including southern Quebec, eastern Ontario and Western Canada, have higher than usual likelihood of fire in April. Risks extend into May and through the summer, though officials stressed much depends on the level of precipitation during this period.
“It is impossible to predict the summer that lies ahead of us, but what is clear is that wildfires will represent a significant challenge for Canada into the future as the impacts of climate change continue to intensify. And the costs to Canadians are growing every single year,” said Harjit Sajjan, the minister of emergency preparedness.
Drought conditions, lower than usual snowpack
Last year was Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, based on a number of metrics, including the total area burned.
The winter months did not bring much relief.
Already, more than 70 fires are burning, primarily in northern British Columbia, northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories, officials said.
Dry conditions and unusually low levels of snowpack across much of the country have again made the landscape more susceptible to wildfire, officials said.
“With the heat and dryness across the country we can expect that the wildfire season will start sooner, and end later and potentially be more explosive,” Sajjan said.
A government map of the current drought situation shows that much of the country is experiencing “abnormally dry” conditions.
The worst conditions — exceptional and extreme drought conditions — are in parts of southern Alberta, central and northern B.C. and southern N.W.T.
Canada experienced its warmest winter on record — with the three months of December to February being 5.2 C warmer than the norm since Canada began keeping records in 1948, according to David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Resources under strain
Last year’s wildfires put a strain on resources. In total, 5,500 firefighters from outside Canada were brought in to help with the fires.
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the government is in talks with other countries to better share resources to fight wildfires, and is training more than 600 new firefighters.
“Wildfires have always occurred across Canada — what is new is their frequency and their intensity,” he said.
“The science is clear the root cause of this is climate change. That is why Canada has one of the most comprehensive climate plans in the world and why we are continuing to move forward on it every day.”
The federal government also announced it plans to increase the tax credit available to volunteer firefighters and search-and-rescue volunteers in the upcoming budget, a change that had been pushed for by the NDP.
The government said the move targets rural communities, where firefighters are most often volunteers and they are confronting increasingly more frequent wildfires due to climate change.
The tax credit will increase from $3,000 to $6,000 for 2024 and subsequent tax years, saving volunteer firefighters up to $900 per year.
WATCH | These easy steps can help protect your home from burning:
As wildfire season arrives, these easy steps can help protect your home from burning
4 hours ago
Duration 3:47
With this year’s wildfire season arriving across Canada, Jason Woodbury, chief of the Miscouche, P.E.I., fire department, wants people to be proactive to keep their homes and properties safe. As he tells CBC’s Sheehan Desjardins, there are simple actions people can take to reduce their risks from any type of blaze.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
