From Coast to Coast, 2023 a Bad Year for Wildfires

A helicopter carrying water flies through heavy smoke outside of Halifax on May 28, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Darren Calabrese)

This year is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for forest fires in Canada. From British Columbia to Nova Scotia, many provinces are dealing with higher-than-normal numbers of fires.

Fire officials say roughly 3.3 million hectares of forest have burned so far in 2023. That’s more than 10 times the 10-year average.

“This is an unprecedented number for this early in the year,” said Michael Norton, director general of the Northern Forestry Centre of Natural Resources Canada.

Speaking at a media briefing on June 5, Norton told reporters that there have been evacuations in nine provinces and territories since early May involving roughly 100,000 people, although many of them have since returned home. He said there are over 950 firefighters from other countries helping with the efforts, and more on the way.

Norton added that the seasonal forecast shows a high fire risk for much of the country for the next few months.

“If this rate continues, we could hit record levels for area burned this year,” he said.

Another expert with Natural Resources Canada said that what’s making this year especially bad is a fading La Nina weather pattern. La Nina is characterized by cooling of the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Wildfire numbers in Alberta have been very high, along with parts of the rest of the country. (Courtesy Government of Alberta)

“La Nina actually favours dry Arctic air moving into Central Canada. … We’ve had a bit more heat than we’ve had during a typical La Nina spring, but it does tend to favour very windy dry conditions,” said Richard Carr, a fire research analyst with Natural Resources Canada.

“We’ve actually been getting kind of the worst of both a La Nina and an incoming El Nino, which is starting to develop over the summer.” El Nino is characterized by a warming of the eastern Pacific.

“Previously the most area burned [by wildfires] was in 1989,” added Carr. “I wouldn’t be surprised if weather conditions are similar to what we had in 1989.”

Roughly 7.5 million hectares of forest, or 75,000 square kilometres, were burned by fire across the country in 1989.

Variations From Province to Province

While the picture varies from province to province, overall it is not good.

As of June 6, B.C. has had 385 fires, and lost over 420,000 hectares, already higher than the total for 2022. The Donnie Creek fire is listed as the second largest in provincial history and had already burned over 240,000 hectares as of June 5.

Alberta has lost over 1.2 million hectares of forest, which is much higher than most years from 2018 to 2022, given the fact that 2019, with over 740,000 hectares burned, was also a bad year.

Saskatchewan has had 202 fires as of June 6, significantly higher than the five-year average of 135.

Nova Scotia’s biggest fire is the Barrington Lake fire, which has burned nearly 25,000 hectares and destroyed an estimated 60 homes and a total of 150 structures, CBC reported. The fire also displaced around 5,000 people.

The Tantallon fire near Halifax displaced around 16,000 people at its peak, and damaged or destroyed at least 150 homes.

At a June 6 news conference, Nova Scotia Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton told reporters he was unable to provide the full extent of the damage yet from the fires.

“It’s been difficult to get a handle on the extent of the damage due to the fire situation,” he said. “But I do want to honestly prepare everyone.”

Nova Scotia has banned open fires at least until June 25, or until conditions improve, and increased the fine from $237.50 to $25,000 for breaking the fire ban.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault checks the map where forest fires are raging as he visits the crisis operation centre in Quebec City on June 5, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot)

“We are still finding cases of illegal burning, and it has to stop,” Rushton said in a news release.

In Quebec, Premier Francois Legault told a news conference on June 6 that fires have burned over 200,000 hectares, forcing some 10,000 people to evacuate. And air quality warnings from smoke covered much of the province.

Fire officials say it’s shaping up to be a bad year.

Yan Boulanger, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada, told reporters in French on June 5 that it’s the intensity of the fires so early in the season that’s almost unprecedented.

“In the last 20 years, we have not seen this area of burning” so early in the season, he said.

Ontario is not as bad, although conditions in some areas are getting worse, and the number of fires as of June 6 was 167, slightly above the 10-year average of 157.

Take ‘Extreme Care’

Federal officials have a clear message for people heading off to cottage country this summer.

“The risk of fire throughout the season is going to be high pretty much across the country,” said Norton. “Awareness of that fact is the first step. The second is extreme care.”

Norton urged people to be very aware of what they do in forested areas.

“Whether that’s anything from a cigarette butt to an all-terrain vehicle, the season will require a very high degree of care to avoid more fires starting,” he said, adding that about half of all forest fires are ignited by lightning.

“We can’t do much about those, but we can do something about accidental starts by people.”

He also cautioned people living in remote or rural regions to take simple steps to safeguard their property, such as removing flammable vegetation from around buildings.