Letter to the Editor

Protect Ontario Begins on the Fireline

They fly toward danger while everyone else runs in the opposite direction.
They spend weeks sleeping in tents, breathing smoke, hauling heavy gear through unforgiving bush, and standing between walls of flame and the communities they have sworn to protect.
Ontario’s wildland firefighters don’t stop to ask whether the odds are in their favour. They answer the call because every fire they stop is a home saved, a family protected, and a community given another tomorrow.
Their courage is extraordinary.
But courage does not extinguish wildfires.
Resources do.
And right now, we are setting our wildland firefighters up to fail.
The Ford government budgeted just $150 million for forest firefighting this year, 45% less than what it spent last year. 
Ontario’s forests stretch across an area roughly twice the size of France. Protecting that vast landscape requires preparation, capacity, and rapid response. Instead, we are relying on overstretched crews, wishful thinking and prayers for rain.
Prayer is not a wildfire strategy.
Prevention is.
Wildfire crews live by one rule: hit fires hard while they are small. Because once a fire escapes initial attack, the costs multiply and the danger grows exponentially.
Every hour lost allows flames to spread.
Every missing crew means another fire waiting for a response.
Every unavailable helicopter means another delay.
Every delay risks turning a manageable fire into a monster.
You cannot protect a landscape this vast with a threadbare budget and hope for the best.
Premier Ford has repeatedly promised to “spare no expense” fighting wildfires. But by the time governments are forced to spare no expense, it is already too late.
The real work happens before the headlines.
Proper funding, staffing, and planning allow fire crews to respond rapidly while fires are still manageable. It protects homes, cottages, businesses, tourism operators, critical infrastructure, and entire communities. Most importantly, it prevents disasters before they happen.
That is not just good public safety policy.
It is good financial policy.
Every major wildfire costs taxpayers far more than the prevention measures that could have stopped it from spiralling out of control. Waiting until communities are threatened does not save taxpayer money.
It burns through it.
A government’s most basic responsibility is to protect its people. In Northern Ontario, that begins with protecting the forests, communities, and front-line workers standing between us and catastrophe. Yet year after year, the Ford government has failed to provide the staffing, equipment, and long-term planning needed to meet a wildfire threat that grows more severe with every season.
Ontario should have 250 initial attack crews available at the start of fire season.
Instead, it has 153.
Ontario should have a deep roster of experienced wildfire professionals, whose knowledge can mean the difference between a small fire and a regional emergency. Instead, the wage cuts brought in by the Ford government, means a rotating cast of seasonal students are all that stands between communities and flames.
That is not a criticism of the young men and women stepping up to serve.
It is a criticism of a government that has failed to build and maintain the workforce Northern Ontario needs.
Premier Ford is quick to praise our wildfire crews, and they deserve every word of it.
But you cannot fight a wildfire with applause.
You cannot fly a water bomber with a photo-op.
And you cannot protect Northern Ontario without the people, equipment, and resources needed to do the job.
Our firefighters deserve more than gratitude. They deserve wages that reflect the importance of their work. They deserve staffing levels that allow them to respond quickly and safely. They deserve adequate helicopters and water bombers, modern equipment, and the support necessary to protect our communities.
Most of all, they deserve a government that pays attention before the smoke drifts south and the crisis becomes impossible to ignore.
For too long, Northern Ontario has been treated as something to worry about only once the skies turn orange in Southern Ontario.
By then, the damage is already done.
If “Protect Ontario” is more than a slogan, it must include protecting the North. That means investing before disaster strikes, not after. It means listening to the firefighters who have been sounding the alarm for years. And it means recognizing that supporting the people willing to risk everything for our communities is not optional.
It is one of the most fundamental responsibilities 
of government.
Because in the end, the question is not whether we can afford to properly fund wildfire protection.
It is whether we can afford the next fire season if we do not.
Luke Hildebrand is a lawyer in Kenora, ON and President of the Kenora-Rainy River ONDP