Canada under fire

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU. CHISU, CD, PMSC, FEC, CET, P. Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East As the summer plods along with a high inflation rate and high interest rates on mortgages, Canadians are also facing an unprecedented rash of forest fires with many communities affected from coast to coast to coast. It has really been a season and a year of extremes. Drought is one example. Canada is a big place and it's always dry somewhere, but not like this year. Agriculture Canada's June 30 drought map shows most of the country was abnormally dry. Large stretches of the Prairies were under at least moderate drought conditions, reaching extreme proportions in southern Alberta. In British Columbia, once the "wet coast," 28 out of 34 river basins were at the province's top two drought levels. Ranchers were selling cattle that they could not grow enough hay to feed, and low stream flows were threatening salmon runs. It has also been really hot. Although the east was generally quite normal, except for the forest fires in Quebec in early June, the west was not. From May through July, Kelowna, British Columbia, experienced 36 days of more than 30 C weather. The normal count is 16 C. Norman Wells, not far from the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories, set a new record of 38 C on July 8. Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips totalled up the number of warm temperature records set this summer versus the number of cold records. There were 372 new hot-temperature marks and 55 cold ones. On top of this, the heat was not restricted to the land only. Phillips said waters off all three Canadian coasts have never been warmer. Hudson Bay is up to 3 C warmer. The Pacific coast is between 2 C and 4 C warmer. Both the Atlantic and Arctic coasts are 5 C above average. Then there were the floods — "so many floods," said Phillips. On July 21, Halifax got three months worth of rain in 24 hours. At least three people died in the floods, up to 600 had to evacuate their homes, and power cuts affected 80,000. Roads washed away and at least seven bridges were left needing major repair or replacement. Then there were the fires that spread smoke across the continent and into Europe, where "Canadian wildfires" made headlines from the New York Times to Germany's nightly news. With more than 13 million blackened hectares, it has been the worst wildfire season in North American history. All 13 provinces and territories have been affected, often at the same time. Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes, hundreds of houses were destroyed and four firefighters have been killed. Over the years, cities such as Calgary and Edmonton have grown used to "smoke days." This year, that unhappy club grew to include Ottawa (171 smoke hours), Montreal (100 smoke hours) and Toronto, which, on June 30, had the second-worst air quality in the world. If we are looking to the history of forest and vegetation fires in Canada in general, since the 1970s and 1980s, the total annual number of wildfires in Canada has decreased while the total area burned has increased, though there is variability between years. Since 1959, the number and size of large fires has increased and the average fire season has become longer by about two weeks. In Canada, wildfire season usually starts in May. The 2023 fires have been compared to the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire and the 2021 Lytton wildfire, but the fires this year were far worse. When people revert to blaming the now well-known slogan of “climate change” perpetuated by humans, we might do well to consider that the so-called ‘climate change’ is a natural and cyclic phenomenon depending on many variables, including the path of the earth in space etc. At the same we must not ignore the basic issue of forest management. It seems that the elite and elite scientists are not seeing the forest for the trees. Roughly, half of all wildfires in Canada are caused by lightning; lightning strikes and lightning-caused fires are happening more frequently. Lightning-caused fires account for about 85% of land burned, often occurring in clusters in remote locations. The other half of wildfires in Canada are human-caused, often unintentionally sparked by things such as discarded cigarette butts, abandoned smouldering campfires, or sparks from braking trains. But let’s face it; Forest management is also a big factor in the wildfires. So here we are: because Canada's forest management has focused on fire suppression, dry vegetation has accumulated on the forest floor. Canada has generally stopped performing controlled burns, which help reduce the risk of larger and more dangerous fires. It is difficult to get permission for controlled burns, especially for Indigenous groups who have historically performed them and are disproportionately affected by wildfires. Canada lacks a national firefighting service, and local resources are stretched thin due to budget cuts. Pollution due to a global increase in wildfires has created widespread, long-term impacts on human health. Due to wildfire emissions, Canada broke its record for annual carbon emissions in late June. Have any of the so-called climate scientists calculated the contribution of forest fires to the total of carbon emissions in Canada? Well ???? Furthermore, is there anyone in government or the public service looking to establish better forest management practices; a service long neglected by all levels of government in Canada? The answer seems to be a resounding NO. They are looking for carbon taxes in various hidden forms, they are looking for fashionable electric vehicles, when due to the recent rash of forest fires Canada broke the record on carbon emissions and became the laughingstock of the world. It is time to think seriously about better forest management and invest in it, rather than spending huge amounts of money overseas and on politically correct pet projects. The forests are burning and people are suffering from coast to coast to coast, while politicians and their advisers in the Canadian public service are fiddling. Enough is enough! Canadians can do without any more Neros! What do you think?