EDITORIAL: Fighting wildfires a national priority

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With wildfires sweeping most provinces, especially Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, we need to reassess how this country deals with such emergencies.

The immediate response is to call in the Canadian Armed Forces. They do a remarkable job of evacuating communities and providing logistical help in difficult and dangerous circumstances, but they’re not firefighters. We need a permanent, highly trained force that can take on that role.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe pointed out the problem this week.

“Currently, Saskatchewan’s greatest areas of need are for water bombers and firefighting resources, which the military is not able to provide,” his office said in a statement.

Saskatchewan asked the federal government for help, along with support from the Canadian Red Cross.

Wildfires don’t respect provincial borders, so when Saskatchewan is battling blazes, it’s likely Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario will be doing so as well.

It’s clear from this year’s early start to wildfire season that our capacity to fight them is stretched to its limits.

It shouldn’t be difficult to find money to fund a national firefighting force.

There’s the Liberals’ jolly green slush fund. Auditor General Karen Hogan found that Sustainable Technology Canada violated its conflict of interest policies 90 times and awarded $59 million to 10 projects that weren’t eligible; it frequently overstated the environmental benefits of its projects.

Let’s take that money and apply it to a project with obvious environmental benefits: Protecting lives and property and saving hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests from being engulfed by infernos.

Or the government could pry some cash from the bloated bureaucracy and the endless “consultants,” whose salaries have added billions to our debt.

Parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux reported that personnel spending within the federal government reached a record high of $67.4 billion in 2022-23 and the size of the civil service has ballooned 42% since the Liberals came to power in 2015. Think of how many firefighters and water bombers that could fund.

Meanwhile, every time this country faces an emergency, we call upon our overworked, under-resourced and vastly underpaid military to step in and do the heavy lifting.

They do so calmly, graciously and without complaint. It’s time to thank them sincerely for all they do and show them respect. And give them a raise.