Natural Disasters Equal to Wars Compelling Government Responses

"FINAL WARNING TO CANADA: Manage your forests to prevent these fires. American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year."

"Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country's airspace has not been met [we offered you status as the 51st state, after all]."

Michigan Rep. John James

Hazardous air quality is creating another day of inconvenience across Metro Detroit, forcing families, visitors, and event organizers to rethink plans as smoke lingers in the region. (WDIV ClickOnDetroit)

 

"If there's some politician out there chirping away, maybe what you should do instead of complaining is send help, because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends." 

"I find it a shame the administration in the U.S. and Congress people [are] writing these letters and blaming us."

"We had the water bombers and everyone going over to California. It was last year.... That's what neighbours do." 

"You don’t get on and start threatening and criticizing, because guess what, one day it's going to be your turn and we're going to be down there without hesitation to support our neighbours, which we should be."

"It's unfortunate they want to politicize this." 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford 

A new evacuation centre has opened in Thunder Bay for people displaced by northern Ontario wildfires. Premier Doug Ford warned that people refusing evacuation orders are hindering firefighting efforts.  Still from video/CBC

 

Thankfully, some of Canada's friends in the United States have chosen a different approach to the matter of conquering the wildfires. In comparison, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, offered  state personnel to assist with wildfire prevention. There are 191 active wildfires across northern Ontario as of Saturday afternoon, 73 of which while being fought, are not yet under control, according to the provincial Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) agency. 

 

The U.S. Republican myth -- which saw a number of U.S. Republican politicians writing a joint letter of warning to Ontario's premier -- that Canada is failing through "inaction" to meet the challenge of the wildfires is simply inaccurate. Ontario, pointed out Premier Ford, is twice the geographic size of the State of Texas. And in Texas authorities there have been battling catastrophic flooding following heavy rains. Were they negligent?

 

In Ontario last year $125 million was budgeted for emergency forest firefighting, but by year's end that budget expenditured to over double, reaching $271 million. Complaints aimed at the Conservative government in Ontario have also arrived from NDP and Liberal MPPs criticizing base budgeting numbers as too low.

 

More communities are under evacuation orders as wildfires rage across Ontario, with smoke affecting air quality across much of the province. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is throwing all resources at the response. Still from video/CBC

 

"In times of crisis, all levels of government, including the opposition, need to come together." The criticism was "absolutely disgusting", responded Mr. Ford. "What I find despicable and disgusting is that opposition (members) would politicize the amount of being being spend and go out there and put false information out." 

 

Some northern communities in Ontario have complained that the response to wildfires by the provincial government was not sufficiently swift to react to rapidly changing conditions. As well, union members representing workers in forest fire response also commented that funding allocations have not kept pace with increasingly severe wildfire seasons in Ontario. 

 

Members of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation are seen in Thunder Bay, Ont., following an evacuation of the entire community on Monday due to a wildfire. (Sarah Law/CBC)

 

According to Mike Harris, Ontario minister of natural resources, the sheer scale of the wildfires leaves provincial authorities in the position of not being able to be everywhere at once. North of Thunder Bay, in Collins, a large fire broke out close to the community, moving so swiftly it reached the town even before a provincial response could be co-ordinated. Residents were evacuated to Thunder Bay, one of several places hosting those displaced by the fires ranging from Sioux Lookout to Niagara Falls, to Toronto.

 

In battling 191 separate fires in Ontario fire crews are performing at their utmost professionalism. Ten communities have been either evacuated or are under evacuation notice, with another four on standby pending the status of nearby fires. Last year's fire season saw some 600,000 hectares of forest burned. This year's total has already reached 650,000 hectares. Over 150 crews are currently engaged with forest fires in the north, with over 80 firefighting aircraft at work in the region, pointed out provincial minister of emergency preparedness and response, Jill Dunlop.  

Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result. "

"This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to increase import tariffs on Canada over the 'unnecessary invasion' of smoke from the hundreds of wildfires that have destroyed communities and forced people from their homes. CBC News