Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where it feels like everything is on fire. Literally, diplomatically, economically, and morally. Manitoba’s smoke ignites tension south of the border. Mark Carney concedes that Canada won’t be able to wriggle out of more U.S. tariffs. And manufacturers see an exit sign in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Meanwhile, an Ontario judge goes easier on a sex offender to preserve his immigration prospects, and more. Let’s get into it!
More than 100 wildfires are burning across Manitoba, prompting the province to declare a state of emergency. Thick smoke drifted into the Midwest, triggering air quality alerts for more than 20 million people in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Residents were urged to stay indoors.
Canada’s wildfire season has scorched 12 million hectares (46,332 square miles), compared with the record 15 million in 2023. Manitoba is having its worst fire season in nearly three decades. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew declared a state of emergency on July 10.
The fires also sparked cross-border political tension. “Our communities shouldn’t suffer because of poor decisions made across the border,” Tom Tiffany, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, wrote on X. Tiffany and five other GOP lawmakers blamed Canada for “a lack of active forest management” and urged “proper action.”
Kinew called the lawmakers “ambulance chasers” and challenged them to shake the hands “of American firefighters in northern Manitoba who are helping us out.”
But the congressmen’s complaints have a point. The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs said in a recent report that only half of all fire departments have the equipment needed to fight wildfires and just 18 percent have received federal funding to fight them, even though 90 percent respond to wildfires. A research paper published in 2019 concluded that Canada chronically underfunds wildfire prevention.
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Author: Rupa Subramanya
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