Minister, I tell you that they do actually help.
Documents obtained suggest that Minister Guilbeault's department was working against your mandate. A senior official at Parks Canada wrote in an email, months before the Jasper wildfires, “At what point do we make the organizational decision to cancel...prescribed burns in Western Canada?” Then the official stated, “political perception may become more important than actual prescription windows.”
Newly obtained emails now reveal that this discussion was so alarming that the executive director of conservation replied, begging Parks Canada to put forest management above politics, and I quote, “I hope we don't get into a blanket shutdown,” she said. “It is critical to continue those kind of burns. It is how they maintain the [community firebreak], and when they fall behind, it is very difficult to catch up.”
When were you first informed that Minister Guilbeault's department was discussing cancelling prescribed burns because of political optics?