Canada’s worst wildfire season fuels calls for national agency to tackle threat

Smoke rises from the Bonanza Creek wildfire west of Cache Creek in Canada’s British Columbia on 22 July 2026. Photograph: BC Wildfire Service/Reuters

As more than 900 wildfires burn across Canada, prompting evacuation orders and pushing Ontario into its worst wildfire season on record, officials are renewing calls for the country to develop a national wildfire strategy through the creation of a federal agency.

Canada is the only G7 country that does not have a national emergency agency that is mandated to respond to wildfires.