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As devastating wildfires raged across Manitoba this summer, Republican lawmakers in neighboring US states issued formal requests for Canada to be held accountable for the resulting smoke plumes drifting southward.
“Our skies are being choked by wildfire smoke we didn’t start and can’t control,” stated Wisconsin State Representative Calvin Callahan in an early August letter.
Callahan, alongside legislators from Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota, filed an official complaint with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), urging a formal investigation into Canada’s wildfire management protocols.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew swiftly responded, denouncing the move as a “timber tantrum” and accusing the lawmakers of engaging in “political games.”
By August, the wildfires had consumed over two million acres in Manitoba, leading to mass evacuations and claiming the lives of two individuals who, according to authorities, were trapped by the rapidly spreading flames near their residence.
As September concludes, data indicates that 2025 is projected to be Canada’s second-worst wildfire season on record.
A study published in the Nature journal in September reveals that smoke from Canada’s wildfires has had widespread and fatal consequences. It estimates that the 2023 wildfires – the country’s most extensive on record by area burned – resulted in over 87,500 acute and premature deaths globally, including 4,100 smoke-related deaths in the US and over 22,000 premature deaths in Europe.
Wildfire smoke contains PM2.5, a type of air pollution known to trigger inflammation within the body. This can exacerbate pre-existing conditions such as asthma and heart disease, and in certain instances, cause damage to neural connections in the brain.
“These are significant figures,” stated Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia and co-author of the study. He emphasized that the findings highlight wildfire smoke as a serious public health concern, comparable to conditions such as breast or prostate cancer.
For some American lawmakers, the responsibility rests squarely with Canada.
“Canada’s failure to contain massive wildfires,” Callahan asserted in August, “has negatively impacted the health and quality of life of over 20 million Americans in the Midwest.”
These complaints raise the fundamental question: Could Canada be doing more to effectively manage its wildfires – and by extension, mitigate the smoke they produce?
Climate and fire experts from both nations suggest that the answer is largely no.
“Until we, as a global society, address human-caused climate change, we will continue to face this recurring challenge,” explained Mike Flannigan, an emergency management and fire science expert at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia.
Data indicates that wildfires in Canada, a natural feature of its vast boreal forest, have intensified in recent years. The fire season now commences earlier, concludes later, and consumes more land on average. The 2023 fires devastated 15 million hectares (37 million acres) – an area larger than England – while the 2025 blazes have already burned 8.7 million hectares (21.5 million acres).
As of mid-September, over 500 fires remain active, primarily in British Columbia and Manitoba, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
Approximately half of Canada’s wildfires are ignited by lightning, while the remaining fires are attributed to human activity, according to data from the National Forestry Database. Experts caution that rising temperatures are causing drier conditions, increasing the risk of ignition.
The increase in severe wildfires is not limited to Canada. The US has also experienced particularly destructive fires, including the 2023 Hawaii wildfires that resulted in at least 102 fatalities, and the Palisades fire in January, the most devastating in Los Angeles history.
Both countries have faced challenges in keeping pace with the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires, often relying on shared firefighting resources. Canadian water bombers were deployed to California this year, while over 600 US firefighters were sent to Canada, according to the US Forest Service.
In Canada, strained resources and the intensification of wildfires have fueled calls for a national firefighting service. Currently, wildfire emergency response is managed independently by each province and territory.
“The existing system worked effectively 40 years ago. Today? Not so much,” Mr. Flannigan argued.
Alternative solutions include controlled burns, a practice implemented in Australia and by Indigenous communities, although these fires would still generate smoke. Other proposals focus on improving the clearing of flammable material in forests and near towns, or investing in new technologies for earlier wildfire detection.
Some of these initiatives are already underway. In August, Canada pledged over $47 million for research projects designed to help communities better prepare for and mitigate wildfires.
However, experts such as Jen Beverly, a wildland fire professor at the University of Alberta, caution that Canada has limited capacity to prevent wildfires entirely.
“These are high-intensity fire ecosystems” in Canada, she explained, distinguishing them from fires in Australia or the US. “We are managing highly challenging fires under extreme conditions, and we’re observing these conditions more frequently due to climate change.”
Given a warmer climate, Prof. Beverly suggests focusing on pollution mitigation. She highlighted the US as the second-largest carbon emitter globally, after China. “Arguably, they are more responsible for the problem,” she stated.
In recent months, the Trump administration has also rescinded environmental policies intended to reduce emissions and withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords.
Sheila Olmstead, an environmental policy professor at Cornell University, noted the history of collaboration between Canada and the US on pollution and climate issues, including the 1991 Air Quality Agreement aimed at addressing acid rain.
“That agreement provided a clear framework for addressing the issue, which appears to be lacking here,” Olmstead told the BBC. She suggested that both countries would benefit from collaborative efforts to manage wildfires, rather than assigning blame.
The potential outcomes of the EPA complaint remain unclear. In a statement to the BBC, the EPA confirmed it is reviewing the complaint “and will respond through appropriate channels.”
Prof. Brauer emphasized that the data from his study demonstrates that the impact of these fires, even when burning in remote areas of Canada, extends far beyond national borders.
He told the BBC that the findings necessitate a re-evaluation of how the consequences of climate change are understood.
“The effects of a warmer climate are often localized, leading to winners and losers,” Prof. Brauer said. “However, this is an illustration of how some of these impacts are becoming global.”
He described the US lawmakers’ complaints as an “unfortunate distraction” and emphasized the importance of collaboration and learning to “live with smoke.”
“This situation is not going away,” Prof. Brauer said, adding that preventive measures can be implemented to mitigate future deaths if there is a collective will to adapt.
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