Canada needs to establish an office to coordinate responses to wildfire emergencies and fund a new fleet of modern firefighting aircraft, according to a new Senate report released Wednesday.
The recommendations are among 15 recommendations in the report of the Senate committee on agriculture and forestry.
At a news conference in Ottawa, senators on the committee said one of the main requests they heard while drafting the report was the creation of a single national point of contact to coordinate the wildfire response.
“We heard that Canada is the only country in the G7 that doesn’t have a seat at the federal table, more or less, to manage and talk about and coordinate the fire response,” Senator Mary Robinson, chair of the committee, told The Canadian Press.
“I think the efforts made to date are commendable, but this crisis is growing and getting worse, and we certainly need the government to do more.”
About six months ago, the federal government launched a new national center to enable better coordination in disaster response.
Federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski said at the time that the center would help coordinate resources in situations where provinces and communities cannot manage on their own.
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But the Senate report calls for Ottawa to take more of a leadership role.
“There is nothing that allows coordination at the federal level for municipal assets across the country,” said Ken McMullen, president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.
“That’s where this office will make a dramatic difference across the country.”
The committee heard that under the current system, forest fires are dealt with first at the municipal level, then escalated to provinces and territories before requests for assistance are submitted to the federal government.
Committee co-chair Sen. John McNair said the process was a waste of valuable time.
“Each escalation and request for assistance also requires valuable time at a critical time when rapid response is needed most and those coordination challenges directly contribute to inconsistent planning, delayed response times, and sporadic access to equipment and personnel,” McNair said.
“We constantly hear that a single point of contact is needed to improve collaboration and eliminate silos.”
Olszewski told The Canadian Press he had not seen the Senate report because he spent the morning at the weekly Liberal caucus meeting. He said he would have more to say on Thursday after reading the report.
The Senate committee also called on Ottawa to “create and fund a national fleet of modern firefighting aircraft.”
The federal government announced last month that it was leasing four air tankers, five heavy lift helicopters and a surveillance aircraft that could be loaned to provinces during periods of intense bushfire activity – but a Senate committee said long-term funding for a new national “fleet of modern firefighting aircraft” was needed.
AP Photo/Nick Ut
Ottawa announced last month that it would lease 10 aircraft – four air tankers, one surveillance plane and five heavy lift helicopters – for 150 days starting this month.
But Robinson said renting a plane is not enough.
“I think this will certainly increase firefighting capacity in the short term, but this committee is calling for a long-term national solution to wildfire aviation,” Robinson told The Canadian Press.
“We think ideally this would involve updating the existing fleet and purchasing new aircraft, so that Canada can be more self-sufficient in fighting the more frequent and destructive wildfires across the country.
“So 10 leased aircraft, new firefighting aircraft with two supporting assets, is great. They will certainly support the effort. But no, it’s not enough.”
The Senate committee report also calls on Ottawa to create a national reforestation policy to plant more trees after forest fires.
In its last budget, Ottawa scrapped planned spending on tree planting as a cost-saving measure.
© 2026 Canadian Press
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