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Dr. Adil Shamji, MPP for Don Valley East and the Ontario Liberal Critic for Indigenous Affairs, held a press conference to report on his recent first-hand experiences in Thunder Bay as Northwestern Ontario combats ongoing wildfires.
Our province faces its worst forest fire season on record. There are approximately 160 active wildfires and mandatory evacuation orders across the north with the Canadian Armed Forces involved. Entire communities have been engulfed in a raging wildfire, named Thunder Bay 36, becoming the largest wildfire in Ontario’s history. It is 320,000 hectares in size, or approximately five times the size of Toronto.
Behind these statistics are people, including the brave firefighters, technicians, water bomber pilots and emergency services personnel who are working around the clock. They are putting their lives on the line, even as their government has delivered less support with each passing year. For example, in 2019, Ford cut the wildfire management budget by 67% and he cut it again by $37 million in 2025.
At the same time, there are countless people suffering and worrying about their personal circumstances. Thirteen northern communities have been evacuated – ten of which are Indigenous – and many are angry with the province for not responding to their calls for help. Some have seen their homes burn to ground, and others can’t even get a meeting with the Premier or his Ministers.
As political leaders, it is our obligation to honour this heartbreak and heroism by doing everything and anything that we can. The Ford government’s inaction fails to do so.
In Thunder Bay, I met with First Nations leaders who have made their call for a public inquiry clear – and this must be implemented. The inquiry will help to reveal why Ford ignored the 2021 Nishnawbe Aski Nation wildfire management recommendations and the 2022 Auditor General emergency management recommendations, at the same time that he was underfunding wildfire management.
A public inquiry will protect communities during the next wildfire season, but it is not a replacement for the decisive action and leadership that is required now. Doug Ford and his Ministers must immediately convene with all affected First Nations leaders and unleash every resource that they need to save their communities and their people.
Crisis doesn’t build character, it reveals it. This crisis has revealed that Doug Ford’s rhetoric around Protecting Ontario is as empty as his broken promises to stop the gravy train.
