Wildfire prevention lacking: report

Parks Canada denies charges, says it is on target

OTTAWA — Parks Canada is throwing cold water on a new report by the federal environment commissioner that says the agency isn’t doing enough to prevent wildfires in its national spaces.

The issue is “fire targets,” which are meant to help ensure forest ecosystems remain healthy. Parks Canada is expected to do controlled burns through certain areas in order to recycle nutrients into the soil and encourage new plant growth. The burns also help prevent spontaneous fires from breaking out.

According to the environment commissioner, for the 35 national parks requiring controlled burns, 28 had enough data for experts to determine how much land should be carefully burned. But the controlledburn targets had been achieved in only nine.

“Failure to achieve fire targets can lead to a buildup of fuel and the potential for catastrophic, high-intensity wildfires,” the report warns.

Interim Environment Commissioner Neil Maxwell said there is an elevated risk of forest fires with such fuel buildup, but noted Parks Canada is working toward removing fuel — such as dead trees — from its parks.

“This could be a risk to human life, but it’s not a disaster waiting to happen,” he said.

Rob Prosper, Parks Canada’s vice-president of protected area establishment and conservation, said the agency is well on its way to meeting long-term targets for fire management.

“Parks Canada feels the linkage in the report between the targets and public safety is an oversimplification of that particular relationship,” he said. “When we look at fire management, public safety is always the first priority.”

“A target is not so much the key here; what is key is the strategic management of fire,” Prosper said.

The report said Parks Canada is facing a massive backlog of work and its resources are stretched thin.

The agency said it would invest about $15 million annually to ensure there is more action in ecological restoration projects, which include the active use of fire. But Maxwell said this is merely reallocating internal funds and that Parks Canada “did not make any specific commitment to close the fire targets.”