With an eye on climate change, the governments of Ontario and Canada are spending $64 million to combat forest fires.
The money will allow the province to hire and train key personnel and buy of new support equipment and technology, including fuel systems, tankers, trucks, and software systems.
“Our government is making critical investments in our wildland fire program – on the ground and in the air – to keep Ontario at the leading edge of wildland firefighting,” said Graydon Smith, Minister of Natural Resources. “We are preparing for more frequent and complex fire seasons to protect our communities now and in the future.”
See: Ontario spending $5 million to attract firefighters
And: 'A job from hell': Ontario is losing forest firefighters as blazes get worse
"By investing in modern fire-fighting technology and supporting wildland firefighters, we can better protect the people of Northern Ontario," says Danny Whalen, president of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities. "We fully support the Ministry’s efforts to enhance wildland firefighting across the province."
Ontario will also be:
- Contracting the services of four additional medium helicopters to support fire suppression, increasing Ontario’s total number of contracted helicopters to 13.
- Ensuring support for communities impacted by fires and floods by contracting the services of an additional plane to assist with community evacuations, if needed.
- Creating more than 100 additional permanent positions to build leadership and experience within our wildland fire program. These new year-round positions will support improved career path opportunities for fire rangers and other staff.
- Spending $5 million to help attract and retain wildland firefighting staff. This recognizes the critical services of wildland firefighters and pilots with an incentive/retention payment of up to $5,000 for the 2024 fire season.
- Supporting wildland firefighters and investigators with improved access to benefit entitlements and eligibility for the same presumptive benefits as municipal firefighters and fire investigators.
To date this year, there have been 450 wildland fires, with 89,395 hectares of forests burned.
