The Smoke
The sky turned orange. Your weather app said the air quality was 'hazardous.' You kept the windows shut and told your kids to stay inside. It's wildfire season again. It used to be a week. Now it's a month.
The System
Canada is burning at a scale with no historical precedent. 2023 was the worst fire season ever recorded — 18.5 million hectares. 2025 was the second worst at 8.9 million. The smoke from the 2023 fires gave New York City an AQI of 413. Chicago had the worst air quality of any city in the world. 350 million people in North America and Europe breathed Canadian wildfire smoke. This is the new normal.
Hectares burned (2023)
Hectares burned (2025)
Estimated smoke deaths (2023)
18.5 million hectares burned in 2023. More than 7 times the historical annual average. Approximately 4% of Canada's entire forested area in a single season.
8.9 million hectares burned in 2025. The second-worst season on record. More than double the 10-year average by mid-season.
The 2024 Jasper wildfire destroyed 358 of 1,113 structures in the town. 25,000 people evacuated. Insured damages: $1.23 billion — the second-costliest wildfire event in Canadian history.
Let's hear the other side
...and see if it holds water
Prescribed burning at the scale needed for Canada's boreal forest is orders of magnitude beyond what any country has ach...
The Promise
After the 2023 catastrophe, the federal government announced a $600 million wildfire preparedness package. Provinces promised better evacuation plans. Industry promised FireSmart compliance. What actually changed?
Canada spent 39 days at national preparedness Level 5 in 2024 — all of July and August. Level 5 means every region is mobilized and international aid has been requested. 12 countries sent firefighters in 2023.
The Reality
The health costs alone are staggering. A 2025 Nature study estimated the 2023 fires caused approximately 1,300 acute deaths in Canada and 4,100 in the US from smoke exposure. The annual health burden of wildfire smoke in Canada is now comparable to all traffic-related air pollution — $6.4 to $52 billion per year in chronic exposure costs.
Annual health cost of wildfire smoke in Canada
The 2023 Canadian wildfires caused an estimated 1,300 acute deaths in Canada and 4,100 in the US from smoke exposure alone. Chronic exposure from sustained smoke added an estimated 41,900 deaths across North America and 22,400 in Europe.
Decades of fire suppression have created massive fuel buildup in Canadian forests. We spent 100 years putting out every fire. Now the fires that do start are catastrophic because there's nothing to stop them.
What Works
Australia learned from the Black Summer fires of 2019-2020 and invested in Indigenous fire management practices — cultural burning that reduces fuel loads while maintaining ecosystem health. BC has the most advanced prescribed burn program in Canada but operates at a fraction of the needed scale. Parks Canada does prescribed burns in national parks. The rest of the country watches and burns.
Australia invested $800 million AUD in bushfire recovery after Black Summer and has scaled Indigenous cultural burning programs. These programs burn at low intensity during cooler months, reducing catastrophic fire risk by up to 50% in treated areas.
What You Can Do
Fire is not going away. The question is whether we manage it or it manages us. Prescribed burning, Indigenous fire stewardship, and FireSmart community design are proven tools. We're barely using them.
Check if your community is FireSmart certified (firesmartcanada.ca). Push your municipality to fund prescribed burning programs. Support Indigenous-led land management. Get a HEPA air purifier — wildfire smoke seasons are now measured in weeks, not days.