Tag: alberta

Lacklustre oil prices likely this year

Fore­casts expect Alberta nat­ural gas to gain steam as more Cana­dian ship­ments head for Asia

This article was written by Lauren Krugel and was published in the Toronto Star on January 7, 2026.

A pair of energy fore­casts released Tues­day see lacklustre crude oil prices con­tinu­ing this year amid a global sup­ply glut and nat­ural gas prices pick­ing up steam as more Cana­dian ship­ments make their way to Asia.

Con­sult­ing firm Deloitte expects West Texas Inter­me­di­ate, the key U.S. light oil bench­mark, to aver­age $58 (U.S.) per bar­rel — about where it’s trad­ing at cur­rently.

That’s about 20 per cent lower than it was at this time last year and roughly 12 per cent below the com­mod­ity’s 2025 aver­age.

The Organ­iz­a­tion of the Pet­ro­leum Export­ing Coun­tries has deferred some pro­duc­tion increases, but “we do feel there’s a little more down­ward pres­sure that could come into prices in 2026,” said Deloitte Canada part­ner Andrew Bot­ter­ill.

The fore­cast doesn’t account for the U.S. raid on Venezuela over the week­end in which Pres­id­ent Nicolás Maduro was cap­tured. U.S. Pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump has said he wants Amer­ican energy majors to take con­trol of Venezuela’s oil assets.

The South Amer­ican coun­try has massive oil reserves with a sim­ilar chem­ical makeup to Alberta’s oils­ands crude and refiner­ies on the U.S. Gulf Coast are well suited to handle that type of oil. A lift­ing of U.S. sanc­tions on Venezuelan crude and a ramp up of pro­duc­tion could pose a com­pet­it­ive threat to Cana­dian sup­plies in the Gulf Coast mar­ket.

Bot­ter­ill sees two dif­fer­ent scen­arios poten­tially play­ing out.

“The tur­moil of Venezuela itself may bol­ster some prices in the short term,” he said.

“But on the flip side, we still are in a dra­mat­ic­ally over­sup­plied sys­tem right now. So I don’t think (com­pan­ies) will have a lot of short­term effects, but it’s cer­tainly something that Cana­dian pro­du­cers espe­cially will be look­ing at into the mid­ and long­term to under­stand some of their invest­ments.”

Ana­lysts at ATB Cap­ital Mar­kets, mean­while, are expect­ing a WTI price of $60 a bar­rel this year. Global over­sup­ply should peak in the first quarter of this year, gradu­ally improv­ing to a much tighter mar­ket in 2027 and 2028 as U.S. shale pro­du­cers burn through their top­per­form­ing wells.

That should bode well for Cana­dian pro­du­cers with long­life, qual­ity assets.

With the star­tup of the Trans Moun­tain pipeline expan­sion to the West Coast in 2024, the price gap between heavy oils­ands crude and WTI has “struc­tur­ally evolved,” as the abil­ity to sell the resource in Asia has meant bet­ter returns for Alberta pro­du­cers, the report said.

“Egress capa­city out of the (West­ern Cana­dian Sed­i­ment­ary Basin) is not expec­ted to be an issue over the next few years,” the ATB ana­lysts wrote.

For nat­ural gas, ATB is expect­ing Alberta prices to strengthen to $3.30 per mmBTU this year from roughly $1.70 last year thanks in large part to the ongo­ing ramp up of the LNG Canada export ter­minal in Kitimat, B.C. The first car­goes left the plant last sum­mer for Asia.

Deloitte expects nat­ural gas prices in Alberta to rise to $2.95 per mmBTU this year.

Bot­ter­ill said demand from energy­ hungry arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence data centres isn’t being reflec­ted in pri­cing yet, but it’s something he’s watch­ing closely.

“It’s a good news story for nat­ural gas as a product, and there’s def­in­itely going to be more demand.”

Alberta and Ottawa’s agreement on methane targets draws mixed opinions

This article was written by Lauren Krugel and was published in the Globe & Mail on December 15, 2025.

A liquefied natural gas tanker fills up at the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C., on Nov. 13. Canada’s first cargoes of LNG started being shipped to Asia over the summer.

The prospect of building a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast has garnered most of the attention since Ottawa and Alberta announced their sweeping energy accord late last month, but another item has left environmentalists dismayed and energy industry players pleasantly surprised.

The federal and provincial governments have agreed to extend by five years the timeline for the oil and gas sector to reduce its methane emissions. Draft federal regulations had called for a cut of 75 per cent from 2012 levels by 2030.

The memorandum of understanding would see the two orders of government enter into an equivalency agreement before April 1 with a 2035 target date to reduce emissions by 75 per cent over 2014 levels.

“The existing draft methane proposed laws put down by the federal government are completely unworkable. They’re not even close to being practical or realistic,” said Tristan Goodman, president of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada. That group represents conventional producers, the bread-andbutter of Canada’s oilpatch outside the majors in the oil sands.

“So any opportunity to improve those or enhance them is constructive.”

Mark Scholz, president and chief executive of the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors, welcomed the “more reasonable” methane policy.

Methane is a greenhouse gas more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20year span, but its lifetime in the atmosphere is up to a dozen years versus centuries for CO2. So, targeting methane is often considered low-hanging fruit for nearterm emissions reduction efforts.

Alison Bailie, a senior research associate with the Canadian Climate Institute’s 440 Megatonnes policy progress tracker, said she was “puzzled” by the change.

She has previously written that finalizing the federal government’s regulations released in draft form in 2023 would be an “easy win for climate progress.”

The oil and gas sector is Canada’s biggest emitter of methane, the main component of natural gas. The gas can escape into the atmosphere through intentional venting, unintentional leaks from equipment and through inefficient burning.

Ms. Bailie said the “technology is there” to manage methane and there’s a growing industry to support those efforts. For instance, satellites can be used to better detect leaks and facilities can be improved to reduce the need for venting, which must sometimes be done for safety reasons.

The British Columbia government has set its own methane emissions target of 75 per cent below 2014 levels by 2030 and is aiming to eliminate them almost entirely by 2035.

But Ms. Bailie said other provinces might look for a deal with Ottawa similar to what Alberta managed to secure.

“A race to the bottom is something we want to really be careful about with these types of policies,” she said.

Alexandra Mallett, associate professor at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration, was also wondering why Ottawa and Alberta saw the need to lengthen the timeline, especially since there was so much consultation around the draft regulations.

“One could say, ‘Of course, the election of [U.S. President Donald] Trump – that’s a change,’ ” she said. Mr. Trump has looked to open up new areas to oil and gas development and boost his country’s domestic production while rolling back environmental regulation.

“And then of course there’s also this desire to support [liquefied natural gas],” Dr. Mallett added. LNG is natural gas that has been chilled into a liquid, enabling it to be shipped overseas on specialized tankers and sold in global markets.

Canada’s first cargoes of LNG started being shipped to Asia this past summer from the LNG Canada plant in Kitimat, B.C. Several other plants are either under construction or in development on the West Coast.

Opponents of LNG development have cited methane leaks as one potential source of environmental harm.

Dr. Mallett said another reason she was surprised by the later timeline is that Europe and other trading partners have sent signals that they want their natural gas imports to have a lower emissions footprint. The European Union put into place stringent new methane regulations last year.

“So, in fact, [sticking to the more aggressive timeline] could be a way to make Canada more competitive,” she said.

Methane emissions reductions have been touted as one of the lower-cost tools in the climatechange-fighting tool box. The International Energy Agency said in a 2024 report that the amount of global investment needed to cut methane emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 would amount to less than 5 per cent of the US$2.4trillion in net income the oil and gas industry generated in 2023.

The cost of meeting Canada’s existing draft methane targets has been pegged at $15.4-billion between 2027 and 2040.

“I don’t see that as cheap. That’s a lot of money,” Mr. Goodman said.

He said there are ways to “get a good result on methane for not a preposterous amount of spend,” but once companies take advantage of the easy opportunities that are available, it might not make economic sense to invest further.

Mr. Goodman added that the industry wants to reduce its methane emissions, but in the most efficient way possible. The status quo shows a “lack of knowledge on how the industry works,” he said.

“So we do hope to see some changes and some more openness on part of the federal government under this new approach to methane.”

Smith defends Ottawa energy deal at UCP convention

This article was written by Matthew Scace and was published in the Globe & Mail on December 1, 2025.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Saturday says she intends to use the Alberta Sovereignty Act to introduce block Ottawa’s gun buyback program.Amber Bracken/The Globe and Mail

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith walked a thin line at this weekend’s annual United Conservative Party convention trying to appease the pro-independence grassroots base of her party while simultaneously touting a new energy deal with her frequent foes in Ottawa.

While she faced loud boos when attempting to sell her energy accord with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday, and a combination of cheers and jeers when she asked the crowd to “not give up on our country” in her speech on Saturday, the Premier said she believes she won some of the party faithful over.

“Not everyone in that room agreed with me, but I think more did in the room today, and that’s my job, is to make sure that the people see what I’m trying,” Ms. Smith told reporters on Saturday.

Ms. Smith leaned on her pitch for a “sovereign Alberta within a united Canada” when asking the party membership to trust her government’s bid to work with Ottawa, which scrapped several federal climate and energy policies to make way for a potential bitumen pipeline to B.C.’s north coast.

Coastal First Nations in B.C. say they’re prepared to challenge pipeline projects in court

But even if the Alberta government’s war with Ottawa on energy policy is reduced to a simmer, Ms. Smith foreshadowed new battle lines she’s preparing to draw with the federal government.

On Saturday, the Premier announced that she intends to use her Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act to introduce a motion that would essentially block Ottawa’s gun buyback program in the province and would protect people’s right to defend their property.

The announcement received a standing ovation.

“Here’s a tip for low-life criminals out there: If you don’t want to get shot, don’t break into someone’s house. It’s really that simple,” Ms. Smith said.

The legality of her Sovereignty Act has not been tested in court.

Ms. Smith later said the mechanics of not enforcing the gun buyback program would be “fairly technical” with more details coming next week.

Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney sign an energy MOU on Thursday, signalling major shift in relationship.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

Despite the prominent independence-minded contingent among the 4,000 or so people gathered at the Edmonton Expo Centre over the weekend, there were clear moments when the Premier’s popularity among the membership appeared to remain strong.

They stood and cheered loudly on Saturday when she stepped onstage for her rabble-rousing keynote speech that leaned on grievances from the Trudeau era and trumpeted a change in policy direction from Mr. Carney’s government.

Other tenets of Ms. Smith’s government – including its sweeping health care reforms, recovery-focused addiction strategy and allusions to “woke” policies such as drug-consumption sites – also earned loud applause.

Robyn Urback: If nothing else, Danielle Smith is a disruptor

Separatist leaders had signalled before the convention that their goal was to elect allies to the party board. Flyers for “pro-establishment” and “pro-independence” candidates circulated around the convention hall ahead of the vote.

Half the UCP’s board seats, including the president’s, were up for election.

But incumbent president Rob Smith survived a challenge from Darrell Komick, a constituency association president who was endorsed by pro-independence leaders.

“I believe our party [does] stand together,” Mr. Smith said after his re-election. “Whether I’m establishment or not, I don’t honestly know, but I’m not even entirely sure what that means.”

Tenets of Smith’s government such as sweeping health care reforms and allusions to ‘woke’ policies garnered loud applause on Saturday at the AGM.Amber Bracken/The Globe and Mail

Though polling has previously suggested a majority of UCP members endorse separation, the weekend appeared to highlight a growing conflict within the party.

John Williams, a founding UCP board member, argued most people were not booing Ms. Smith, and that most of the membership remains satisfied with her leadership.

“They were not booing the Premier. They’re booing the situation … and we are pissed off with Ottawa,” said Mr. Williams.

UCP member Paul Chauvet, who was strolling the aisles wearing a shirt that read “My country is Alberta,” said he endorses independence but did not jeer Ms. Smith on Friday.

“I don’t agree with everything Danielle Smith does, but for the most part, I’m very happy,” he said. “She’s our iron lady.”

Analysis: Welcome to Canada’s energy-first future

Jeff Rath, a prominent independence advocate who led raucous cheers for separation on Friday night, argued the opposite: “She’s got a problem. She’s completely lost her base. People think she’s delusional,” he said of Ms. Smith.

“That’s not where her base is. That’s not where her party is. If that’s what she wants to do, maybe she needs to cross the floor again and join the frickin’ PC’s.”

Diane Kreuger, a member who said she doesn’t endorse independence, said she has a major problem with how the province is handling disability programs – but said she appreciates how frequently Ms. Smith engages with the public.

Members, on the weekend, also voted in favour of non-binding motions to end public funding for third-trimester abortions, to reintroduce coal-fired power and to ban fluoride from municipal drinking water.

Participants vote on resolutions at the convention on Saturday. Approximately 4,000 people gathered for the weekend meeting.

Wild­fire sea­son burns oper­at­ors’ bot­tom lines

Com­pan­ies are report­ing `mil­lions of dol­lars’ in lost rev­enue after blazes

A Jasper, Alta., neighbourhood is devastated after a wildfire in August 2024. Visitor numbers to the Alberta city are about as good as they can be, considering about onefifth of the town's overnight accommodations burned in the fire, said Tourism Jasper CEO Tyler Riopel.

This article was written by Lauren Krugel and was published in the Toronto Star on September 3, 2025.

Fewer tour­ists are com­ing to Jasper, Alta., than usual this year, but it’s not for a lack of people eager to visit the pic­tur­esque Rocky Moun­tain town.

Num­bers are about as good as they can be, con­sid­er­ing about one­fifth of the town’s overnight accom­mod­a­tions burned when a fero­cious wild­fire swept through last sum­mer, said Tour­ism Jasper CEO Tyler Riopel.

“There’s about as many people vis­it­ing Jasper this sum­mer as we have overnight accom­mod­a­tions for, so I say it’s a win,” he said. “We’re see­ing between a 16 and 20 per cent actual vis­itor num­ber reduc­tion over­all, and that is 100 per cent dir­ectly attrib­uted to the loss in fixed­roof accom­mod­a­tions and camp­grounds.”

Spots that are avail­able are almost entirely full, Riopel said, adding the squeeze is likely to last into next sum­mer as the town’s rebuild con­tin­ues.

Vis­it­ors seem to be spend­ing less when they’re in the town in shops and at attrac­tions, but Riopel isn’t sure whether that’s a wide­spread trend.

There’s still plenty to do in the national park, he said. That includes more than a thou­sand kilo­metres of hik­ing trails, white­water raft­ing, the SkyTram gon­dola, the golf course and boat cruises on the tur­quoise waters of Maligne Lake.

“Jasper is such an intriguing place to be right now. Parks Canada has worked really hard to ensure that there’s a few fire impacted forests that people can walk through,” Riopel said.

Though sum­mer may be peak tour­ist sea­son in Jasper, Riopel said winter will also be import­ant as people come for ski­ing and other winter activ­it­ies.

As the Jasper recov­ery con­tin­ues, tour­ism oper­at­ors affected by wild­fires else­where this year are strug­gling.

North­ern Saskat­chewan and Man­itoba have been par­tic­u­larly hard hit, which has taken a toll on out­fit­ting busi­nesses that cater to hunters and fish­ers.

Roy Ander­son, act­ing CEO of the Saskat­chewan Com­mis­sion of Pro­fes­sional Out­fit­ters, said his group is sur­vey­ing mem­bers to quantify the fin­an­cial impact.

“We’re talk­ing mil­lions of dol­lars in terms of lost rev­enue at a min­imum,” he said.

Many busi­nesses serve a small num­ber of repeat cus­tom­ers — mainly Amer­ic­ans — will­ing to splurge to hunt big game. Those cli­ents book well in advance, so oper­at­ors have to pre­pur­chase sup­plies and staff up ahead of time, leav­ing little flex­ib­il­ity when unex­pec­ted dis­rup­tions arise.

Ander­son said early in the spring, con­cern centred around Canada-U.S. trade ten­sions and any knockon effects on cross­bor­der tour­ism.

“It wasn’t maybe as impact­ful as we thought it might be,” he said. “And then we moved right into the real­ity around the wild­fires.”

Fires burn­ing close to a camp or hunt­ing area would of course require trips to be can­celled for safety reas­ons. But even in unaf­fected areas, high­way clos­ures, air travel dis­rup­tions and bans on off­road vehicles have had big impacts, Ander­son said.

He’s call­ing for a dis­cus­sion with gov­ern­ment offi­cials about how to deal more pro­act­ively with the fire threat in future.

“We know this may be a unique year, but it might not be,” Ander­son said.

Ander­son said gov­ern­ment could recon­sider the scope of all­ter­rain vehicle bans, per­haps hav­ing some allow­ances for com­mer­cial oper­at­ors or in cer­tain zones. Sparks that come off the machines can trig­ger fires when a forest is tinder dry.

Tour­ism Saskat­chewan is still determ­in­ing the impact.

“Anec­dot­ally, some oper­at­ors have exper­i­enced losses, while most have remained fully open. In addi­tion to the fires them­selves, evac­u­ation alerts and high­way clos­ures con­trib­uted to dis­rup­tions, includ­ing can­cel­la­tions and reduced vis­itor traffic in some areas,” said Alexa Lawlor, a spokes­per­son for the pro­vin­cial agency, in an email.

“Many accom­mod­a­tions stepped up to provide emer­gency shel­ter for evacu­ees and fire­fight­ing per­son­nel, and we are deeply grate­ful for their con­tri­bu­tions.”

The Indi­gen­ous Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation of Canada has been hear­ing from mem­bers that it’s been a par­tic­u­larly tough sum­mer, said chief exec­ut­ive Keith Henry.

The effects have been felt right across the coun­try. Some vis­it­ors have can­celled because they didn’t want wild­fire smoke to ruin their exper­i­ence. Full clos­ures of wil­der­ness areas in Atlantic Canada have caused busi­ness to evap­or­ate overnight.

Oper­at­ors in north­ern Man­itoba had been “expect­ing a really excep­tional year,” said Henry.

“Their busi­ness is down 30 per cent.”

Wild­fires haven’t been the only chal­lenge though. Labour dis­rup­tions at Air Canada have also caused would­be trav­el­lers to put off their trips.

Tour­ism is a major eco­nomic driver for Indi­gen­ous com­munit­ies, Henry added.

“Indi­gen­ous tour­ism is so much more than eco­nom­ics. It’s cul­tural revital­iz­a­tion, it’s local employ­ment, it helps fam­il­ies, it help the artists,” Henry said. “We don’t want to lose faith in what we’re try­ing to build and what we’ve been build­ing for many, many dec­ades now. We’re going to con­tinue to work really hard to make sure it sur­vives and thrives.

“We’ve just got to fig­ure out how do we adjust to these kinds of external factors that seem to have such down­stream impacts on us?”

N.S. blaze doubles in size

This article was written by the Canadian Press and was published in the Toronto Star on August 17, 2025.

An evac­u­ation alert ended Sat­urday for thou­sands near a wild­fire burn­ing close to New­found­land’s largest city, but in Nova Sco­tia, offi­cials feared an out­ofcon­trol fire in Anna­polis Val­ley would spread.

Dave Steeves, a pro­vin­cial pub­lic inform­a­tion officer, said the fire near Long Lake had nearly doubled in size since Fri­day to about eight square kilo­metres. The fire is burn­ing about 135 kilo­metres north­w­est of Hal­i­fax, and offi­cials declared a state of emer­gency in Anna­polis County on Sat­urday. Steeves said he wor­ried the wild­fire would keep grow­ing.

“The poten­tial for growth today is very real,” he said Sat­urday. “Our air assets and fire­fight­ers on the ground are doing their very best to to try to hold it, where it’s safe.”

In New­found­land, offi­cials announced Sat­urday that an evac­u­ation alert had ended for about 20,000 people in and around St. John’s. The Depart­ment of Justice and Pub­lic Safety also ended a regional state of emer­gency that included the towns of Para­dise and Con­cep­tion Bay South, on the out­skirts of the city, and the St. John’s neigh­bour­hoods of Gal­way and South­lands.

The evac­u­ation alert was promp­ted by a fire near Paddy’s Pond, about 15 kilo­metres south­w­est of the city’s down­town core.

The largest fire in the province, known as the King­ston fire, also held steady overnight at about 95 square kilo­metres.

In north­ern New Brun­swick, a wild­fire north of Mirami­chi promp­ted offi­cials Fri­day night to ask res­id­ents of Lavil­lette to be pre­pared to evac­u­ate on short notice.

The pro­vin­cial gov­ern­ment said there were 30 act­ive fires across New Brun­swick on Sat­urday, six of which were burn­ing out of con­trol.

Nova Scotia county the latest region hit by fire in Canada’s summer of smoke

This article was written by Claire McFarlane and was published in the Globe & Mail on August 16, 2025.

When he received an evacuation order on Thursday, Mike Pasztor of Annapolis County, N.S., grabbed what he could: a photo of his wife’s daughter who had passed away, some bottles of water and some of his documents.

While his wife left toward Bridgetown, he stuck around to douse his house and the surrounding area with water.

“It’s all we have, is our home, right?” Mr. Pasztor said. “And my little and my shop and and everything I’ve collected over the course of 40 years.”

More than 50 households in Annapolis County are some of the most recent residents displaced by wildfire in a summer that, for some provinces, has been the worst in decades.

On Thursday, an evacuation order was issued for parts of Annapolis County as the biggest of the nearby wildfires on the province’s mainland grew to 406 hectares.

The order comes as blazes creep into parts of Canada that have rarely had a fire season, creating a smoky and perilous summer for many people across the country.

While lower temperatures and increased relative humidity have helped fire suppression efforts on mainland Nova Scotia, lightning and dry conditions continue to pose a risk, said Dave Steeves, a public information officer for the province’s Department of Natural Resources.

“The conditions down here today are a bit more favourable than they have been in the days previous, but we’re still dealing with a relatively explosive situation regarding the amount of moisture that’s left in the fuels around,” said Mr. Steeves told reporters on Friday.

He said that in the past day and a half, he had seen “some relatively extreme fire behaviour.”

“Our flame lengths were quite high, which is an indicator to basically how dangerous the situation is,” Mr. Steeves said.

In nearby Bridgetown, Lory James, owner of the Bridgetown Motor Inn, said her hotel is nearly at capacity with evacuees and staff of Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources.

“The community has really rallied,” Ms. James said. “They’ve set up a muster point basically for all the evacuees at the fire station. And people are bringing food over for everybody.”

At Bridgetown’s Junction Sixteen on Thursday evening, restaurant supervisor Perry Ross said he could sense tension in the air as people from town became increasingly concerned about the possibility of having to evacuate themselves.

The fire is about 10 kilometres away from Bridgetown, Mr. Ross estimated.

He owns a small hobby farm with about 45 goats, chickens and dogs.

“To get all the animals kind of wrangled up would be quite the Noah’s Ark,” said Mr. Ross, who said a friend had offered to lend a livestock trailer should the evacuation order grow to include Bridgetown.

Elsewhere on Friday, progress had been made battling fires in Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes region. The Burnt River area fire, known by officials as HAL019, moved from being classified as “being held” to “under control,” meaning the blaze has been suppressed enough to limit spread of the fire.

In the same region, the Kirkfield area fire moved from being classified as “out of control” on Thursday to “being held” on Friday, meaning that under forecasted weather conditions, the fire suppression efforts and current committed resources mean that the fire is unlikely to spread beyond predetermined boundaries.

In British Columbia, rain that fell recently has helped improve conditions around the Mount Underwood wildfire near Port Alberni and in the Wesley Ridge fire near Cameron Lake, said fire information officer Karley Desrosiers on Friday.

Manitoba has been under a provincewide state of emergency for more than a month over widespread and severe wildfires. The province said this year’s wildfire season has been the worst in the past 30 years, having burned more than 1.75 million hectares so far.

The province said that as of Wednesday, the wildfire service was responding to 161 active blazes.

A state of emergency is in place until Aug. 22.

Improved weather allowed for Saskatchewan to lift a provincewide fire ban on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Steve Roberts of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency said that all areas of the province’s northern forest had received between five and 20 millimetres of rain recent days.

“That has increased our ability to contain these fires and accomplish more,” said Mr. Roberts.

On Friday, there were 79 active wildfires still burning across Saskatchewan and eight active evacuations, according to the province.

In Alberta, 39 of 51 active wildfires have been classified as “under control,” according to the province’s interactive map.

The Northwest Territories currently has 113 active wildfires, with 95 classified as “out of control,” according to the territory.

Yukon had 88 active wildfires burning as of Friday, with 161,971 total hectares burned so far this year.

Thou­sands flee First Nation as wild­fires close in

Res­id­ents headed for Win­nipeg as flames worsen air qual­ity, threaten to cut off road access

This article was written by the Canadian Press and was published in the Toronto Star on August 5, 2025.

Thou­sands of people have fled from a First Nation in north­ern Man­itoba Monday as wild­fires burned closer and closer to the com­munity.

The Nis­ichaway­asihk Cree Nation, also called Nel­son House, issued a full evac­u­ation order Sunday in response to the blazes, as flames threatened to cut off road access and mud­died air qual­ity.

It was upgraded one day later to a man­dat­ory evac­u­ation. The com­munity’s roughly 4,000 res­id­ents were to register with the Cree Nation before bus­ing to the Thompson Air­port, about 75 kilo­metres away, to fly to Win­nipeg.

On social media, Nis­ichaway­asihk Chief Angela Levas­seur said crews are work­ing around the clock to make sure every­one gets out safely.

“We are also doing everything in our power to make sure every pos­sible meas­ure is taken to sup­press the wild­fires that threaten our beloved ances­tral lands,” she said in the post.

“We want you to know that we have escal­ated our con­cerns to the highest levels of gov­ern­ment — includ­ing the Premier of Man­itoba and the Prime Min­is­ter of Canada — to make our needs and demands clear on behalf of our cit­izens.”

An update said wild­fire crews with the province had iden­ti­fied sev­eral new fire starts.

“Given the prox­im­ity to Nel­son House and the city of Thompson, the poten­tial for dam­age is sig­ni­fic­ant and should not be under­es­tim­ated,” the update said.

Man­itoba’s wild­fire ser­vice said at least two wild­fires were burn­ing north of Nis­ichaway­asihk, includ­ing one more than 460 square kilo­metres in size.

Man­itoba Kee­wat­inowi Oki­makanak, an advocacy group rep­res­ent­ing some north­ern First Nations, said more than 1,300 people registered with the Cana­dian Red Cross in Win­nipeg as of Monday.

More were expec­ted to arrive later in the day, the group said, not­ing it would provide essen­tials like hygiene packs, tooth­paste, tooth­brushes, snacks and juice.

“Our hearts are with you,” the group said.

“We pray for rain and a quick return home.”

In July, res­id­ents of the Cree Nation were ordered to evac­u­ate fol­low­ing a state of emer­gency over heavy wild­fire smoke.

Monday’s evac­u­ation comes as the Cana­dian Inter­agency Forest Fire Centre reports almost 750 wild­fires across Canada, includ­ing one about 60 kilo­metres from Nanaimo, B.C. Another two are along the shores of Con­cep­tion Bay in east­ern New­found­land.

The BC Wild­fire Ser­vice said the Wes­ley Ridge wild­fire on Van­couver Island has grown to more than five square kilo­metres. Offi­cials said a small amount of rain is expec­ted this week, but dry con­di­tions in the area mean it would take a lot to tame the fire.

Mean­while, the New­found­land and Lab­rador gov­ern­ment issued evac­u­ation orders for the two towns of Small Point—Adam’s Cove —Black­head—Broad Cove and King­ston due to a 150­hec­tare wild­fire that had come within one kilo­metre of King­ston.

Another evac­u­ation order was issued for por­tions of the town of Holyrood, N.L.

Smoke from the wild­fires has filled many Cana­dian skies from Van­couver Island to Toronto to Char­lot­tetown with grey and gritty haze.

One air qual­ity tracker on Monday ranked Toronto as hav­ing some of the worst air qual­ity in the world.

Man­itoba’s wild­fire ser­vice said at least two wild­fires were burn­ing north of Nis­ichaway­asihk Cree Nation, includ­ing one more than 460 square kilo­metres in size

RELIEF ON THE HORIZON

This article was written by Mike Hager and was published in the Globe & Mail on August 1, 2025.

A water bomber battles the Drought Hill fire near Peachland, B.C., on Thursday. The blaze is one of 20 started Wednesday in the province, according to data by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

Peachland mayor praises prevention and response efforts as most evacuation orders lifted in B.C. community

Lytton First Nation also ordered evacuations for two reserves because of a wildfire, one of several burning in areas of B.C. facing heat warnings

A truck hauling heavy machinery down a highway in British Columbia’s dry Okanagan region caught fire Wednesday, sparking a blaze in the nearby bush that has forced nearly a thousand people from their homes.

Patrick Van Minsel, mayor of the District of Peachland, is among them.

But he said the aggressive actions by provincial wildfire fighters, the community’s volunteer fire department and previous efforts by the community to clean the surrounding bush of a natural buildup of fuels has ensured that there have been no injuries or damaged buildings.

“I was very impressed by their approach and they were very fast,” Mr. Van Minsel said of the firefighters.

By Thursday afternoon, the local regional district had lifted evacuation orders for most of the 400 homes on the outskirts of the small town south of Kelowna, but the mayor said that he and the residents of roughly 130 houses in the area still couldn’t return.

A day earlier, he ran home to grab his “go bag” with essentials such as ID and a change of clothes and spent 20 minutes trying and failing to find his cat Cybil, who he says can access her food and water dishes by entering through a cat door.

The Drought Hill fire is one of 20 that ignited Wednesday in B.C., adding to 40 others burning in the province, according to the daily snapshot provided Thursday by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which co-ordinates the transfer of personnel and equipment coast to coast.

To date, B.C. has seen 723,756 hectares scorched this year − an area slightly less than last year at this same time but attributed to significantly fewer fires (651 compared with 1,062).

The agency stated that B.C.’s hot and dry conditions will likely continue until a possible downturn during the coming long weekend. Rain is forecast for parts of the province in the next few days. Colder fronts often bring a day or two of rain, but also higher winds and more lightning.

Meanwhile, the Lytton First Nation, which was devastated four years ago by a wildfire, has ordered that residents on some of its reserves be evacuated again.

The First Nation issued an evacuation order Thursday for two sparsely populated reserves because of immediate danger caused by an uncontrolled wildfire burning nearby, about 10 kilometres south of the village of Lytton.

The order signed Thursday said residents must leave the Lytton 26A and Skwayaynope 26 reserves immediately and head to a reception centre.

A spokesperson for the First Nation said it was not the same area that was evacuated in June, 2021, when much of nearby Lytton was destroyed by a wildfire and two people were killed.

Barj Dehaan said he was driving back home to Vancouver on Wednesday when he started seeing smoke about 30 kilometres east of Lytton.

“As I got closer, I could see this huge plume of smoke. And as I got closer, I could see the literal fire as well, trees on fire. I have not seen a live fire like that before,” he said Thursday.

He said the region has been very hot. “The air quality was poor, and I could feel a burning sensation in my throat, strong smell of burning wood. And then I started thinking about the people who live in that town, that here they are again, having to deal with a fire that seems to be out of control,” he said.

The fire near Lytton is one of a handful of significant fires burning in the province in areas where Environment Canada has issued heat warnings this week, with temperatures in the high 30s.

Also on Thursday, the BC Wildfire Service upgraded a blaze in the Fraser Valley to a “wildfire of note” and warned campers to leave the Harrison Lake area as roads are closed ahead of the long weekend.

Town marks day of remem­brance

Mayor, res­id­ents com­mem­or­ate one year since thou­sands fled blaze in the dead of night

Jasper Fire Chief Mathew Conte stands in the firestricken town Monday. A year after wildfires swept through the area, the community is slowly rebuilding what it lost.

This article was written by Matthew Scace and was published in the Toronto Star on July 23, 2025.

One year to the day a wind­whipped fire forced thou­sands to flee in the dark of night along one smoke­choked road, the mayor of Jasper acknow­ledged it was a moment of remem­brance that some would much rather for­get.

“Some of you may be attend­ing today with some meas­ure of appre­hen­sion or trep­id­a­tion, fear­ful per­haps, that some remark or reflec­tion may trig­ger an intense and unwel­come reac­tion,” Richard Ire­land told 150 people at a com­mem­or­a­tion cere­mony Tues­day in a town park.

“Some res­id­ents who have returned home to Jasper may have inten­tion­ally stayed away this morn­ing to avoid that very risk.

“My hope, and I expect yours, is that in pay­ing homage to all that we’ve been through, in recog­niz­ing our pro­gress and our suc­cesses, in com­mem­or­at­ing this sad anniversary, we do not stir too much.”

Other lead­ers also made remarks. Some in the crowd wore Jasper Fire Depart­ment shirts, some were in Parks Canada gear.

The ground was wet from the pre­vi­ous night’s rain­fall and the event was set against a back­drop of low­hanging clouds, a con­trast to the heavy smoke and ash that blanketed the town one year earlier.

Fed­eral Emer­gency Man­age­ment Min­is­ter Eleanor Olszewski fought back tears as she spoke.

“I see homes under con­struc­tion, busi­nesses are reopen­ing … I know, though, that there are chal­lenges ahead,” she said. “Recov­ery is not a straight line.

“Jasper’s beauty and spirit have always inspired and they will con­tinue to do so.”

On July 22, 2024, a swiftly racing wild­fire forced 20,000 vis­it­ors and 5,000 town res­id­ents to leave, spawn­ing images of long lines of vehicles, their red tail lights glow­ing, inch­ing through a tun­nel of smoke in the dead of night.

Two days later, shift­ing winds and towers of flame showered the town with embers that lit new fires, des­troy­ing a third of all struc­tures in a capri­cious assault that left intact homes stand­ing along­side piles of rubble.

Some fire­fight­ers battled the flames know­ing their homes had been des­troyed.

A full res­id­en­tial rebuild is expec­ted to take upwards of a dec­ade.

So far, 114 prop­er­ties have been cleared for con­struc­tion, while 71 remain held up by soil­test­ing require­ments for con­tam­in­ants.

The sum­mer tour­ism sea­son is in full swing. Jasper lost 20 per cent of its accom­mod­a­tions in the fire, but its tour­ism agency says hotels and homes have been almost full since the May long week­end.

Along­side the anniversary has been a war of words between the town and Premier Dani­elle Smith’s gov­ern­ment over a third­party report.

The report, com­mis­sioned by the town and released late last week, sur­veyed front­line fire­fight­ers and other offi­cials to determ­ine ways to improve future fire responses. It says the province’s inter­fer­ence dis­rup­ted the focus of fight­ing the fires.

The Alberta gov­ern­ment was not respons­ible for lead­ing the response because Jasper is loc­ated inside Jasper National Park, but the report says the province reg­u­larly asked for inform­a­tion and sought “to exer­cise decision­mak­ing author­ity.”

It says the jur­is­dic­tional over­lap “cre­ated polit­ical chal­lenges that dis­rup­ted the focus of incid­ent com­mand­ers.”

The authors don’t elab­or­ate on how severely these chal­lenges impeded the emer­gency response, but Ire­land said there was no sug­ges­tion in the report that any dis­rup­tion led to a “neg­at­ive con­sequence.”

Loewen said Tues­day he doesn’t have fur­ther insight into the issues raised in the report. Smith has called the cri­ti­cism unfair and last week deman­ded the town apo­lo­gize for the report and retract it. The town has done neither.

Ire­land has said the town stands by the report, but added it was not inten­ded to lay blame or politi­cize the issue and has been mis­rep­res­en­ted.

Oppos­i­tion NDP Leader Naheed Nen­shi said Jasper did the respons­ible thing by com­mis­sion­ing the report. He cri­ti­cized Smith for blow­ing off its find­ings. “She has to be com­mit­ted to work­ing with part­ners, whether that’s local muni­cip­al­it­ies, local people or even the fed­eral gov­ern­ment,” he said Tues­day. “Oth­er­wise, future dis­asters will become more polit­ical, more chaotic and more dan­ger­ous.”

Smith, in a social media post Tues­day, said the province would con­tinue to sup­port the town in its recov­ery.

Jasper rebuild ‘heavy burden’ for residents

This article was written by Alanna Smith and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 23, 2025.

Builders work on a new construction project on Monday on a block that was burned down roughly one year ago when wildfires struck Jasper, Alta., destroying one-third of the community.

Alberta town marks one year since wildfires as community deals with delays and officials seek accountability

About 200 Jasper, Alta., residents, some quietly wiping away tears, gathered on Tuesday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of a wildfire that destroyed one-third of the picturesque mountain community.

Speakers at the ceremony, which included officials from all levels of government, Parks Canada and an Indigenous elder, focused on the resilience of Jasper residents. They also paid respect to Morgan Kitchen, a 24-year-old wildland firefighter who died while battling the blaze.

Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland said the event served as recognition for all that residents have endured and the work that still lays ahead. He said gathering has been the community’s salvation after the fires and there was no more fitting way to come together one year later.

“While the initial shock and some of the aftershocks of the event may have subsided, the weight and the burden on the shoulders of residents has not diminished. In some cases, it may have increased as time itself becomes a heavy burden,” Mr. Ireland said.

“The strength and resilience of the community, which was revealed at the outset, continues to define and honour all of you.”

On July 22 last year, fast-growing wildfires prompted the late night evacuation of roughly 25,000 people from the town of Jasper and surrounding national park. Bone-dry conditions and gusting winds were food for the fires, which merged and formed a towering wall of flames that quickly consumed homes and businesses.

In total, 358 of 1,113 structures were wiped out by flames. Most of the damage was concentrated in the west side of Jasper, where rows of houses were turned to ash, cars were reduced to burntout shells and once cherished belongings became nothing more than memories.

While the fire never returned to town, it continued to burn for many weeks, frying more than 32,000 hectares of land before coming under control last September. On the highway into Jasper, thousands of charred tree stems, like splinters in the forest’s skin, stretch as far as the eyes can see.

On Tuesday, cloudy skies gave way to stretches of blue after heavy rainfall overnight – the kind of weather that residents had dreamed of last year. At the anniversary event, which was held at Commemoration Park, much of the focus was on the road ahead.

Rebuilding has been a challenge already for the tight-knit community. The majority of properties that were destroyed by the fire have yet to receive the necessary permits and approvals to proceed with restoration. These delays are putting residents and business owners at risk of running out of insurance coverage.

The Jasper wildfire is the second-most expensive insured loss event in Canadian history after the 2016 Fort McMurray, Alta., blaze.

Mr. Ireland said it was known from the outset that recovery would not be quick or easy. He said residents are at varying stages of rebuilding their lives after the fire.

“We have differences in our circumstances, differences in our perspectives, yet, despite those differences, we remain united,” he said.

In the past week, tensions have been high between the municipality and province after the release of a town-commissioned report that concluded the Alberta government impeded the Jasper fire response.

Premier Danielle Smith has demanded an apology and that the report be retracted; Mr. Ireland has stood behind it and said he regrets that the report is being used as a “political document.”

Alberta Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen did not mention the report in his public remarks but did list the province’s support efforts during the wildfire, which included sending firefighters, helicopters and other resources to help attack the blaze.

“Alberta’s government was here, working side by side with Parks Canada and the town of Jasper every step of the way,” he said, adding that the province continues to work in partnership with other levels of government to rebuild the town.

Eleanor Olszewski, federal Minister of Emergency Management, said during her remarks that recovery is not linear and involves “obstacles and frustrations.” She thanked everyone involved in the rebuild, adding that Jasper holds a special place in her heart.

“Jasper’s beauty and spirit have always inspired,” she said, her voice trembling. “And will continue to do so.”

Another speaker, Parks Canada president Ron Hallman, focused his remarks on the “heroes” of the Jasper response, including Mr. Kitchen, who died after being struck by a tree.

He offered his appreciation for the town and Parks Canada employees who helped evacuate thousands in the middle of the night even as their own friends and family left without them, in addition to the firefighters that protected others’ homes while their own turned to rubble.

“These are heroes,” he said. “We cannot forget what they’ve given.”