Last year was the hottest year on record. Record-setting forest fires raged across Canada, hurricanes and tornadoes grew fiercer and more frequent, droughts beached fishing boats in the Amazon.
Now it’s 2024 and the bears are waking up early after the warmest winter on record even as northern firefighters brace themselves for another long, hot, dangerous summer.
The response from the Ford government? Not too worried about the bears, and we have forest fires every year.
We need real investments to deal with the growing impacts of the climate crisis. Last year, we saw what a diminished forest firefighting contingent looked like as the province was blanketed in smoke from an incredible 700 wildfires.
That’s why Ontario Greens Deputy Leader, Aislinn Clancy, put forward a real forest fire action plan. This plan would:
- Increased funding to hire and retain more wildland fire staff, with specific effort made to hire Indigenous wildland firefighters with traditional knowledge of wildfire management.
- The creation of a dedicated climate adaptation fund to help municipalities make infrastructure climate-ready and reduce the risk of future environmental hazards.
- A commitment to get Ontario off fossil gas and invest in cheaper, cleaner renewables and Indigenous-led climate solutions.
Join us in calling on Premier Ford and Minister of Forestry, Graydon Smith, to finally implement a forest fire protection plan to keep Ontarians safe.