Ontario is putting forward a plan to give itself a suite of new powers aimed to better prepare for wildfires and deal with their fallout.
A “collective, whole-of-society approach” is required to deal with the province’s wildfire seasons, which are projected to get much worse, according to a Ministry of Natural Resources discussion paper posted to the Environmental Registry of Ontario on Monday. Ontario could see 50 per cent more fires by 2040 than were recorded pre-1990, the province said.
As such, the Ford government is proposing sweeping changes to the Forest Fire Prevention Act, including steeper penalties for offenders and mandatory prevention plans for communities.
Much of the discussion paper is non-specific. It proposes, for instance, higher fines and longer prison sentences for offenders, but doesn’t include dollar amounts or years, or which types of offenders could be targeted.
Forest fire lawbreakers could soon be hit with “administrative monetary penalties” or AMPs — beloved by governments for not requiring any charges to be laid, and therefore saving precious court time. Officers may be given more powers to stop and arrest suspects. And courts may be allowed to “issue a broad range of orders to encourage compliance upon conviction.”
Under the proposed changes, the minister of natural resources (currently Graydon Smith) would be able to force municipalities to develop wildfire management plans, or to update ones he finds lacking. He would also be able to order specific prevention activities, though it’s not spelled out what those may be. The types of orders he can make in an emergency would also be “clarified,” the paper says.
Open-air burning policies and prevention training programs could also be changed under the new plan — including potential financial incentives for communities that implement prevention or mitigation programs.
Ontario may also encourage more logging in forests at higher risk of burning.
The government is also looking into new ways of communicating fire risk, as well as new awareness campaigns about fire safety.
The changes have been a long time coming.
In 2022, the auditor general published a report that found several issues with Ontario’s wildfire preparation.
Response times to problem fires were too slow and prevention and mitigation strategies were outdated, then-auditor general Bonnie Lysyk found.
Lysyk noted in her report that “few communities were receiving provincial funding to help them reduce the risk of wildfires,” and that Ontario had spent less than half of its budget for the FireSmart training program between 2019–2022. While Ontario had just one FireSmart-designated community at the time of the audit, British Columbia had over 150.
Lysyk found that Ontario’s wildfire management strategy had not been updated in eight years. She recommended the government “focus on proactive mitigation activities to directly reduce the susceptibility of homes, business and critical infrastructure to fire.”
Shortly before the report came out, Ontario launched a review of its emergency management, with an initial focus on wildfires, called the Natural Hazard and
Emergency Management Modernization (NHEMM) project.
Ministry staff called the discussion paper an "important milestone" in a memo to provincial aviation, forest fire and emergency services (AFFES) staff sent on Monday and obtained by The Trillium.
"While we do have to manage expectations of what may result, it is important to emphasize that this review is not being driven from a perspective of program reductions but rather acknowledges the capacity challenges and support requirements that you have all told us about," wrote AFFES Director Chris Cuthbertson and NHEMM Director Bruce Wurtele in another staff memo sent last month.
Noah Freedman, a wildland firefighter and OPSEU's spokesperson on wildfire issues, said the proposed changes ignore a key root cause of the province's struggles: there aren't enough experienced wildland firefighters.
Wildfire fighting is a "very specialized world" and it's tough to get the full picture unless you've done it, he said.
"So the idea that a political figure would all of a sudden have new powers which would rectify the entire scope of Ontario's wildfire program ... it's not clear at all how that would work," he said.
OPSEU has been pushing for Ontario's FireRangers to be reclassified as firefighters, which would mean higher pay. That would help with retention — a key issue as people are leaving the career in droves, meaning remaining crews are inexperienced, Freedman has said.
(The Ford government has extended the same presumptive WSIB coverage to wildland firefighters as municipal ones, but hasn't changed their job titles or pay — beyond a one-time $5,000 bonus).
"They've identified enhanced preparedness and response to wildland fire ... in the document. If we don't have people that understand how to manage fires once they occur, then we're missing a massive piece of the puzzle," Freedman said.
Only a third of Ontario's fire crews are fully staffed, Green Leader Mike Schreiner said, adding that the government has "failed to deliver" protective equipment, training and technology needed by wildfire fighters.
Ontario is accepting comments on the discussion paper until Aug. 29.
