NDP calls for immediate action to support communities tackling wildfires

NDP Emergency Preparedness and Climate Change Resilience critic Richard Cannings made the following statement on the wildfires burning across the country:

“This year, like last year, we have wildfires burning across Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

At this moment, people in Jasper National Park are being evacuated because of severe wildfires. In my home province, British Columbia, more than 300 wildfires are burning and we are calling in crews from other countries to help overwhelmed local forces.

These out-of-control fires are destroying homes and forcing people to flee from their towns. Sadly, this is becoming our new normal, and we clearly need to do things differently. Canada needs a serious plan to deal with it — one that supports local efforts to combat these fires.

That’s why New Democrats, local firefighters and 75 per cent of Canadians have been urging the Liberals to create a National Wildfire Fighting Force so that Canada has the resources it needs to support people without relying on the military. In May, the armed forces said that they wouldn't have the resources to meet the needs of communities facing raging wildfire this summer.

We need to extinguish wildfires as quickly as possible, before they grow into monstrous blazes that destroy communities and produce widespread smoke that chokes the air we breathe.

But the Liberals are not acting quickly enough in the face of this crisis. Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives won’t listen to experts — they will cut funding to communities that need to prevent and fight these fires. Pierre Poilievre even voted against the NDP's proposal to increase benefits to volunteer firefighters.

It shouldn’t be up to communities to bear the brunt of these devastating fires alone - New Democrats are calling on the Liberals to immediately create a National Wildfire Fighting Task Force.”