Report
Executive Summary
The Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (the committee) completed a long-term study on the growing issue of wildfires in Canada and the consequential effects that wildfires have on forestry and agriculture industries, as well as rural and Indigenous communities, throughout the country.
From 1981 to 2018, more than 300,000 wildfires prompted over 400,000 evacuations, including the 2016 Fort McMurray, Alberta wildfire, which displaced nearly 90,000 people and caused approximately $9.5 billion in losses.[2] Over the past decade, Canada has averaged more than 5,000 wildfires annually, burning roughly 2.9 million hectares each year.[3] In one recent year alone – 2023 – wildfires burned 14.6 million hectares of land throughout Canada, shattering previous records both nationally and regionally. Figure 1 illustrates the cumulative extent of the national burned area composite in Canada for the period 1972 to 2024.
Three consecutive record-breaking wildfire seasons—2023, 2024 and 2025—have demonstrated that climate change is accelerating fire behaviour beyond the capacity of existing systems. Wildfires are now a crisis.
“We have assessed how governments can better prepare for escalating wildfire risks. The evidence shows overwhelmingly that increasingly severe wildfire seasons are now a major economic, social and public health challenge that require urgent, coordinated action at a much larger scale than what is happening now.”
Ryan Ness[1]
The committee heard that millions of Canadians are exposed to toxic wildfire smoke for days, weeks or sometimes months at a time. The physical health and mental health consequences are significant, particularly for children, pregnant women, older adults, people with chronic conditions and remote Indigenous communities who often have limited access to both clean air spaces and long-term mental health support. The economic costs of wildfire smoke now exceed the costs of fire suppression itself.
Indigenous communities—who have lived with fire for millennia—remain under‑resourced and sidelined. Many have endured repeat evacuations, loss of homes and long-term economic losses. Despite their deep expertise in fire stewardship, Indigenous firefighters often encounter barriers to participating fully in wildfire management and urgent response. Strengthening Indigenous-led governance, training, equipment access and long-term funding is imperative.
Forestry and agriculture—the economic pillars of rural and northern regions—are also at a crossroads. Wildfires are reducing timber availability, damaging infrastructure, eroding supply chains and undermining the viability of forest-dependent communities. Agricultural producers are losing livestock, crops, equipment and land; they face rising insurance costs and inadequate business risk management programs that do not respond quickly enough during wildfire emergencies. Without significant adaptation, these sectors will continue to suffer deep and lasting losses.
The committee learned that no single authority is responsible for wildfire preparedness, response and recovery in Canada. Provinces and territories manage wildfire suppression; federal departments provide emergency coordination, scientific advice and funding. Municipalities struggle with limited resources including adequate evacuation supports and training for firefighters. Coordination challenges contribute directly to delayed response times, inconsistent planning, uneven access to equipment and personnel and a system that mobilizes only once disaster is already underway, none of which are moving at the speed of the current wildfire crisis.
“Canadians have experienced numerous highly damaging fire seasons in the past decade. Unfortunately, climate change modelling suggests things will likely be worse in the future. Higher temperatures, longer fire seasons, stronger winds, more lightning and drier fuels will all contribute to increases in area burned at high severity.”
Robert Gray[4]
Despite these challenges, the committee learned about solutions. For instance, prescribed and cultural burning, proactive fuel management, expanded FireSmart implementation, wildfire-resilient infrastructure, modernized building codes, enhanced predictive modelling, early-warning systems, and investments in new technology such as satellite monitoring, aerial firefighting capacity and advanced drone systems all offer pathways toward greater resilience.
To co-exist with wildfires, the committee believes that a whole-of-society approach is needed; one that is based on collaboration between federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous governments, to ensure wildfire preparation, adaptation and resilience measures are built into all communities and business sectors, in particular forestry and agriculture. We understand that the Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada serves as the Ministerial Lead for Jasper. We hope that the recommendations and findings from this report will help to inform the wildfire rebuilding and recovery efforts in that community.
[1] Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry [AGFO], Evidence, 9 October 2025 (Ryan Ness, Research Director on Adaptation, Canadian Climate Institute).
[2] AGFO, Evidence, 23 October 2025 (Jean-François Houle, Vice-President, Engineering, National Research Council of Canada).
[3] Ibid.
[4] AGFO, Evidence, 7 October 2025 (Robert Gray, Wildland Fire Ecologist, R.W. Gray Consulting Ltd.).
Recommendations
Recommendation 1
The Government of Canada designate forests as a strategic national asset and recognize forests as critical and renewable infrastructure.
Recommendation 2
The Government of Canada create a federal coordinating office for wildfires and emergency response – modelled after the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and New Zealand – to coordinate people, resources and policy in a modernized context, and that this office include the voices of Indigenous communities and their expertise.
Recommendation 3
The Government of Canada create and fund a national fleet of modern firefighting aircraft, that are in good working order, and the necessary infrastructure and trained personnel (i.e., pilots) that would be pre‑positioned throughout the country and support provinces and territories during wildfire seasons. That the Government of Canada also provide long-term funding for emerging wildfire technologies (such as drones and other innovations).
Recommendation 4
The Government of Canada work with provinces, territories, municipalities and Indigenous communities and governments to develop coordinated approaches to mitigate and respond to human- and health-consequences of wildfires – including physical and mental health issues linked to smoke exposure and the psychological effects of evacuation and displacement trauma – by ensuring long-term funding for mental health supports for affected communities, before, during and after wildfire evacuations, that integrate pre-planning support, cultural safety and relationship-building across agencies.
Recommendation 5
The Government of Canada, in partnership with Indigenous communities and governments, take immediate action to remove barriers faced by evacuees in host communities during wildfires, including by ensuring equitable access to housing, services and culturally responsive supports.
Recommendation 6
The Government of Canada establish a national wildfire hazard mapping program to predict the likelihood of wildfires with the same models used for drought and flood forecasting.
Recommendation 7
The Government of Canada enhance capacity for Indigenous-led fire management by extending financial and logistical support to Indigenous communities, utilizing existing Indigenous clauses in the Wildfire Resilient Futures Initiative and the Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate program.
Recommendation 8
The Government of Canada, in partnership with Indigenous communities, take urgent action to recognize, remove any barriers to the integration of, and resource traditional Indigenous knowledge and expertise, including by investing in and expanding Indigenous-led, on-the-ground firefighting workforces.
Recommendation 9
The Government of Canada create a national reforestation policy that responds swiftly to disasters such as wildfires, as well as provide long-term investment for landscape-level planning, training and capacity building.
Recommendation 10
The Government of Canada work with the provinces and territories to ensure that, under the next Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, business risk management programs are more responsive for agricultural producers after wildfires to maintain their economic viability.
Recommendation 11
The Government of Canada work with provinces, territories and municipalities to ensure that new homes are built safely, affordably and practically, and that adaptation and resilience measures be added to the National Building Code of Canada 2030 and consider incentivizing people to purchase more FireSmart homes.
Recommendation 12
The Government of Canada collaborate with provincial and territorial governments to increase long-term funding for rebuilding municipal structures and infrastructure that are damaged or destroyed during wildfires.
Recommendation 13
The Government of Canada collaborate with provinces, territories and municipalities to further enhance the volunteer firefighter tax credit, training and safety education for firefighters.
Recommendation 14
The Government of Canada work with provinces, territories and municipalities to convene stakeholders for a regular policy-focused conference to address wildfires in the country.
Recommendation 15
The Government of Canada acknowledge that wildfires demand urgent action. As the committee heard, we must move at the speed of the crisis.
Ottawa – The federal government must significantly increase investments in wildfire prevention, adaptation and response, and improve its collaboration with other levels of government as well as with Indigenous communities, the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry said in a report released June 10. These measures are urgently needed to confront this escalating crisis and to better protect Canadians throughout the country from the economic, health and environmental consequences of catastrophic wildfires.
With record-breaking wildfire seasons in recent years, fire behaviour has accelerated beyond the limits of existing systems, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of Canadians, scorching millions of hectares of land and degrading air quality. Following an in-depth study, the committee is making 15 recommendations to the federal government.
Notably, the committee found that ineffective collaboration across all levels of government is impeding wildfire management. Wildfires are a shared jurisdiction, which presents co-ordination challenges that contribute directly to inconsistent planning, delayed response times, uneven access to equipment and personnel, and a system that only mobilizes once disaster is already underway.
Many First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities are situated in remote or forested regions, placing them at heightened risk to the escalating frequency and severity of recent wildfires. Moreover, the communities at the forefront of these wildfire emergencies struggle with limited resources and infrastructure, including a lack of funding for wildfire equipment and training for firefighters.
The forestry and agriculture sectors suffer billions of dollars in losses due to wildfires, including timber, crops, livestock and equipment. Equally concerning, the committee notes the physical, psychological and financial distress felt by the residents coping with these losses and the trauma of evacuation displacement.
With this year’s wildfire season now underway, the committee implores the federal government to act with urgency and purpose to safeguard Canadian lives, landscapes and businesses.
Quick Facts
- Fire is a vital ecological process that helps shape forest, grassland and brush ecosystems. However, Canada’s forests — comprising 9% of the world’s forests — are losing their resilience to fire and their ability to regenerate due to changes in the size, frequency and severity of wildfires.
- Canada has averaged more than 5,000 wildfires annually over the past decade. The 2023 wildfire season was the most devastating ever recorded in Canadian history; 6,837 wildfires resulted in 232,359 evacuees and 14.6 million hectares of scorched land.
- Canada has 3,200 fire departments and about 126,000 firefighters — 70% of whom are volunteers. In 2023, more than 90% of those departments responded to wildfires, but only half had the necessary equipment.
- Forests are a cornerstone of Canada’s economy; in 2024, the sector contributed $30.7 billion to the country’s nominal GDP and exported more than $36 billion in products. More than 300 communities rely on the sector for employment and long-term prosperity.
Quotes
“Wildfires are more than just smoke and flames; they are national disasters that tear through the heart of Canadian communities. These traumatic events burn people’s homes and livelihoods to the ground, destabilizing communities and leaving survivors with long-lasting physical, psychological and financial challenges. Wildfires are national catastrophes and governments must adapt their response to match the scale of the crisis and mobilize at the speed of the flames.”
- Senator Mary Robinson, chair of the committee
“Canada is on fire. Our collective response must meet the urgency of this escalating crisis. The committee is calling for improved and decisive co-ordination across all levels of government, meaningful partnership with Indigenous groups, large investments in wildfire prevention and preparedness across regions and sectors, and long-term commitments to rebuilding resilient communities and ecosystems.”
- Senator John M. McNair, deputy chair of the committee
Associated Links
- Read the report: Canada on Fire: The catastrophic and escalating effects of wildfires on lives and communities.
- Follow the committee on social media using the hashtag #AGFO
- Subscribe to email alerts for Senate committees.
- Sign up for the Senate eNewsletter.
For more information:
Monica Granados
Communications Officer | Senate of Canada
343-550-5448 | Monica.Granados@sen.parl.gc.ca
Multimedia
Senators who participated in this study
Mary Robinson
CSG - Prince Edward Island
John M. McNair
ISG - New Brunswick
Robert Black
CSG - Ontario
Sharon Burey
CSG - Ontario
Yonah Martin
C - British Columbia
Marnie McBean
ISG - Ontario
Tracy Muggli
PSG - Saskatchewan
Karen Sorensen
PSG - Alberta
Ex officio members of the committee: the Honourable Pierre Moreau, P.C., or the Honourable Patti LaBoucane-Benson, the Honourable Leo Housakos or the Honourable Yonah Martin, the Honourable Lucie Moncion or the Honourable Joan Kingston, the Honourable Flordeliz (Gigi) Osler or the Honourable Robert Black, the Honourable Brian Francis or the Honourable Judy A. White
Other senators who have participated in the study: the Honourable Brent Cotter (retired), the Honourable Pierre J. Dalphond, the Honourable Margo Greenwood, the Honourable Mobina S. B. Jaffer (retired), the Honourable Marty Klyne, the Honourable Elizabeth Marshall (retired), the Honourable Julie Miville-Dechêne, the Honourable Victor Oh (retired), the Honourable Manuelle Oudar, the Honourable Chantal Petitclerc, the Honourable David Richards (retired), the Honourable Paula Simons, the Honourable Toni Varone, the Honourable Kristopher Wells and the Honourable Judy A. White