A former wildland firefighter is backing claims that Ontario was not well prepared for this year’s fire season.
Noah Freedman spent ten years with the Ministry of Natural Resources, making 2025 his last.
He says the government’s decision to reduce the number of Fire Ranger crews over the years has impacted the MNR’s ability to get to fires early on.
The Ministry had 200 crews at the ready several years ago, before decisions were made to reduce it down to 150.
This represents about 700 wildland firefighters, depending on the crew size.
Freedman says Ontario’s wildfire strategy has long been based on getting to fires while they are small quickly.
“When we have our normal number of crews and helicopters, 200 fire crews, we could hypothetically go attack 150 to 200 individual fires by themselves while they’re small,” says Freedman.
“We just didn’t have those resources this year.”
Freedman notes that firefighters and their union have long expressed concern about the crew reductions.
The Ontario Public Services Employees Union has noted that the Ministry in some fire seasons struggled to fill positions and operated with fewer crews than required.
A 2022 Auditor General report found that it was taking longer than four hours to dispatch crews to 15% of fires that occurred between 2017 and 2021.
Another review of the MNR’s wildland fire management processes and procedures is currently underway.
“We’ve been expressing these concerns to the government behind closed doors for years, and it’s gotten to the point where the only way that this government responds is when the public gets frustrated by actually learning the truth,” says Freedham.
Freedman also questions the government’s decision not to sign long-term contracts with private helicopter operators.
He says those helicopters are vital in moving crews and equipment promptly to fires.
“Absolutely critical. It is why we’ve always had them,” says Freedman.
Freedman acknowledges the amount of money the government is spending to battle wildland fires, but notes that much of the spending occurs after the fact.
“When we don’t have enough money to implement strategies and prevention methods before the fire season, we get caught with our pants down,” says Freedman.
He adds that spending money on resources during the season leads to the province paying more for equipment and other things that should be in place before the fires break out.
“We’re wasting more tax dollars by not using that money preemptively,” says Freedman.
“The whole idea that we’ll spend as much money as we need to. It sounds great, but it’s not how prevention and planning works.”
