Ottawa, Ont. (Rural Roots Canada) – A Senate committee is calling for urgent federal action to address Canada’s escalating wildfire crisis, warning that increasingly severe fire seasons are outpacing our ability to respond.

In a report released Tuesday, the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry said three consecutive record-breaking wildfire seasons in 2023, 2024, and 2025 have demonstrated that climate change is accelerating fire behaviour beyond the capacity of existing systems. It’s threatening communities, public health, and key economic sectors, including agriculture.

“Canada is on fire,” said Senator John M. McNair, deputy chair of the committee. “Our collective response must meet the urgency of this escalating crisis.”

The committee said Canada has averaged more than 5,000 wildfires annually over the past decade, burning roughly 2.9 million hectares each year. In 2023 alone, wildfires burned 14.6 million hectares across the country, the largest on record.

“Wildfires are now a crisis,” the report states.

The report highlights the growing threat to Canada’s agriculture sector, with producers losing livestock, crops, equipment and productive land. Farmers are also dealing with rising insurance costs and business risk management programs that the committee said often do not respond quickly enough during wildfire emergencies.

Without significant adaptation measures, the report warns agricultural producers will continue to face devastating and lasting losses.

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The committee also noted that wildfires are disrupting forestry operations, reducing timber availability, damaging infrastructure and undermining the economic viability of forest-dependent communities throughout rural and northern Canada.

Wildfire smoke is also a major issue. Millions of Canadians are exposed to wildfire smoke for extended periods of time, resulting in significant physical and mental health consequences. It also found that the economic costs associated with wildfire smoke now exceed the costs of fire suppression itself.

“Wildfires are more than just smoke and flames; they are national disasters that tear through the heart of Canadian communities,” said Senator Mary Robinson, chair of the committee. “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.”

According to the report, coordination challenges among federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous governments are contributing to delayed response times. Inconsistent planning and uneven access to personnel and equipment are also issues.

Indigenous communities, particularly those located in remote and forested regions, face considerable risk from increasingly severe wildfires. The committee said Indigenous communities often lack adequate resources, equipment and training despite possessing generations of expertise in fire stewardship and management.

Among its 15 recommendations, the committee is urging Ottawa to establish a federal wildfire coordination office, create and fund a national fleet of firefighting aircraft, develop a national wildfire hazard mapping program, and expand Indigenous-led fire management initiatives.

It also calls on the federal government to work with provinces and territories to improve business risk management programs under the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership (Sustainable CAP) so that agricultural producers can recover more quickly and effectively from wildfire-related losses.

The committee said a whole-of-society approach involving all levels of government and Indigenous partners is needed to improve wildfire preparedness, adaptation, and resilience in communities and across the agriculture and forestry sectors.

You can find the report on the Senate of Canada website.