Evidence of meeting #123 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was fire.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
It's always hard to say—and I will say this—that it is ever enough. We do as much as we can in the control windows that we have, so there is—
Conservative
Conservative
Liberal
Shafqat Ali Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being here today, and I apologize for the way you've been treated here by my colleagues. This is a committee. We ask questions, and you respond to those questions. If you're not given an opportunity to respond to the questions, I don't think there's a point in asking questions.
First of all, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to those questions asked by my colleague, if you have any questions to respond to, so that you can give your side of the story, please.
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
I'm happy with the responses I gave to Mr. Leslie. I'll turn it, though, to my colleague, Ms. Upton, to further elaborate.
Darlene Upton Vice-President, Protected Areas Establishment and Conservation, Parks Canada Agency
Yes, I can just give a few statistics.
I have a list of over 14 projects from 2018 in Jasper related to mechanical tree removal, as well as prescribed burns that have been going on. We do, on average, about 12 to 13 prescribed burns per year in Parks Canada. We plan for those. We have a directive. Each site has fire management plans and outlines its prevention and fire reduction strategies. That includes prescribed burns. Those are planned for annually at the local level, with support from the national level.
We take every opportunity we can. Prescribed fires, however, are dependent on particular conditions—like prescriptions, to be correct—in order to light those fires. That has become more challenging recently with the fire season starting earlier and going longer. Prescribed fires take place in the spring and the fall. We've invested a lot of money, and we've had an additional $52 million over five years to help us continue to do more work on the prevention side, as well as the suppression side.
Liberal
Shafqat Ali Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Thank you.
How did the lessons learned process from the 2023 wildfire season aid in the preparation and mitigation measures for this wildfire season?
Anyone can answer that.
Director General, Government Operations Centre, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
I'm happy to elaborate.
As everyone recalls, last year was the single worst fire season in Canadian history by any number of measures, such as smoke. There were 200,000 folks evacuated. We had 15 million hectares burned. We had 5,000 international firefighters arrive to help us, so last year, obviously, was very significant. The implications of that for a repeat this year were not lost on anyone.
Our colleagues at Environment and Climate Change Canada and NRCan predicted, unfortunately, that the drought conditions we're seeing in the west—pervasive drought, pervasive heat—were going to continue this year. The only variable that can change is the amount of precipitation.
Therefore, very late in the season last year when the fires started to die down, which was October, which is extremely unusual—and, as you'll recall, there were 100 fires that continued burning underground under snow, which we call zombie fires, in B.C. and the Northwest Territories—we took lessons learned and started very early last fall. It was a national consultation. We talked to every province, to CIFFC, to NRCan and to indigenous groups, and we came up with a series of lessons learned that we presented to the government in the fall. We also then accelerated everything we do in terms of preparation for this year.
Normally, we go to cabinet in May with a risk assessment that's provided by the best available science, federally and provincially. That happened, I believe, in March of this year. To bring that science up by three months is a very difficult thing to do, and we did that. We engaged every province. We know that CIFFC and others looked for international assistance much earlier than normal.
Liberal
Shafqat Ali Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
I have a couple more questions.
I wanted to ask about the people who are making decisions on fire suppression. Do they live in that community, and would they be affected by the wildfires?
Director General, Government Operations Centre, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
If you're talking about Jasper, go ahead, Mr. Campbell.
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
The person responsible for wildfire management, the person responsible for vegetation reduction and the person responsible for the FireSmart program all live in the town. Two of those individuals lost their homes.
When you live in a town and your family lives in a town and when your life is in that town, I have a hard time imagining the motivation of anybody not to do everything possible in order to protect your town.
Liberal
Bloc
Monique Pauzé Bloc Repentigny, QC
Okay, thank you.
The growing threat of forest fires means that we need the opinions of a number of people, a number of experts. The people around the table must have a great deal of knowledge. We've heard a lot about trees and controlled burning, for example. I would like to hear about structures. We heard that some people lost their homes.
Have people been brought together around a table to discuss structures, equipment, services, systems and protocols? There are also other concerns, such as the insurance implications for a public or private structure. Everything is at risk these days.
Have people been brought together to discuss distance requirements, for example, or to start a review of protection systems in urban and suburban areas?
Trevor Bhupsingh Assistant Deputy Minister, Emergency Management and Programs Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Thanks very much for the question.
The question is quite important.
It's an integrated committee, with federal government representatives, the province and also the municipality. It's set up to govern, now that we're out of the response and into the recovery, and to deal with all the issues that you just mentioned in terms of the recovery aspects, whether it is to build back better the structures or whether it is to discuss issues around assistance.
With respect to the federal government and Public Safety Canada, the disaster financial assistance arrangements were mentioned earlier. Those discussions are taking place there.
I want to assure you that there is a governance structure that has been formally set up, and discussions are taking place around all of the issues of recovery that are going on there.
Again, it's ongoing. It's early days as we move into the recovery in Jasper—
Monique Pauzé Bloc Repentigny, QC
We always hear that people work in isolation. It's time to overcome this isolation and get people around the table to discuss the best approaches for forests and structures.
Liberal
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the officials for being here.
I am thinking about the people who were evacuated and thinking about what it must have been like to have to flee and then return to their community devastated by the wildfires. I think we all need to come together to support the town of Jasper and the rebuilding process.
Can you talk a little more about the rebuilding of the town of Jasper and the consideration of the option of a firebreak buffer zone, the space between the forest and the town?
Senior Vice-President, Operations, Parks Canada Agency
There already is a very large and significant firebreak around the town of Jasper, much like there are large blocks— and in fact, the blocks are growing, and we need to have those blocks grow—around the town of Banff as well, and there is a firebreak between Banff and Lake Louise.
In the Mountain Park area, and certainly all across the country, as Ms. Upton had noted, we are making larger blocks. We are doing more prescribed burns and more mechanical removal all across the country because of exactly what you said.
NDP
Laurel Collins NDP Victoria, BC
We know poor air quality from wildfire smoke hits the most vulnerable the hardest. Oftentimes, they are seniors, children, pregnant people and people working outdoors. Smoke from larger and more frequent wildfires is having an impact on asthma, cancer and mental health.
I'm curious about this: In your emergency preparedness and disaster management, are you connecting with the after-impacts of both post-traumatic stress and the clear impacts on health and well-being?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Emergency Management and Programs Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Yes, we are. The emergencies' impacts on people are of grave concern to us. We are doing a lot of work in terms of post-traumatic stress. We have some programs. I can turn to that in a second.
With respect to the smoke, we're connected with our colleagues in the health portfolio to talk about the impacts. When there are wildfires, we have data and information on smoke and just how bad it is. Some of the impacts of smoke are also communicated to the general public through health messaging.
We know it's an issue that has to be addressed.
