Aerial crew fight the Dryden Creek Wildfire north of Squamish, B.C., last June.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
Canada’s wildland firefighters face aging aircraft, staffing shortages and growing concerns about readiness as they head into another prospective busy summer.
Last year’s fire season burned close to 8.9 million hectares across Canada, forcing more than 75,000 people from their homes. Mapping from Natural Resources Canada forecasts the likelihood of wildfires in parts of southern Canada at above average risk in May and June.
“Aircrafts aren’t just in demand in Canada, but globally. There’s shortages,” said Kelsey Winter, executive director at Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, or CIFFC, the organization that co-ordinates wildfire resources among different provinces.
Larger fires means there’s more reliance on aircraft, said Ms. Winter. And recently, more provinces are burning at the same time, which means there are fewer resources to share between jurisdictions.
The federal government is giving $316.7-million to CIFFC over the next five years to increase their aerial firefighting capacity, with aircraft available for the 2026 wildfire season. Ms. Winter said more information will be released in May.
Manitoba has six active water bombers and one spare, according to an e-mail from a provincial spokesperson. It is spending $80-million on three additional water bombers, but those won’t arrive until the 2031 and 2032 fire seasons.
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Alberta, too, is in the market for more planes. The province is spending $400-million for five water bombers to upgrade its aging fleet and to keep up with rising wildfire risk across the province, Riley Gough, a spokesperson for Alberta’s forests and parks ministry, wrote in an e-mail. The aircraft are expected to arrive around 2031.
Alberta has four water bombers and contracts for 19 others for the 2026 wildfire season, in addition to four helitankers.
John Gradek, a lecturer on aviation management at McGill University, said provinces are sounding the alarm too late for more water bombers. Canada’s devastating fire season in 2023 should have been a wake-up call, he said.
He said the types of water bombers in use right now are anywhere from 15 to 40 years old. The planes are structurally sound and built to last, he said, but parts are more prone to frequent failures, so the aircraft end up under repair when they are needed most – lessening their reliability as more time passes.
Matthew Crawley, vice-president of corporate affairs for Babcock Canada, a defence and aerospace company that helps maintain Manitoba’s water bombers, wrote in an e-mail that while well-maintained older aircraft do not pose a safety risk, the upkeep is costly, especially owing to more frequent inspections.
Finding pilots to fly water bombers is another problem.
Former wildland fire crew leader Noah Freedman, pictured in Vancouver earlier this month, says firefighters need more money and safety precautions to remain in the profession.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
Noah Freedman, a former Ontario wildland fire crew leader who now serves as a local union executive, said the wages of water bomber pilots don’t match inflation or the demands of the job, meaning pilots don’t stick with the role.
A job posting for a water bomber co-pilot in Ontario notes a weekly salary ranging from $1,780 to $2,165. The job, by nature, is seasonal. In contrast, a recent job posting on Air Canada’s website shows annual pay for a captain flying a narrow-body jet a few years after joining the company ranges from $255,000 to $291,000.
“Ontario itself has been bleeding bomber pilots and engineers for many, many years because of the pay,” Mr. Freedman said, noting many pilots he knows are moving to the U.S. or taking jobs at commercial airlines for better wages.
He said the job is taxing and firefighters need more money and safety precautions to keep them in the profession.
“You know, after a long season, you haven’t really had an opportunity to see family or friends, much less take a rest. And that’s the job,” Mr. Freedman said.
He retired this year after 10 years of service to spend time with his family. “I’m trying to survive.”
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Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in B.C., said fire seasons are starting earlier in the spring and stretching later into the fall, and the shortage of critical resources such as pilots, crew and equipment makes it more challenging.
“We’re such a big country that it may be every year somewhere in Canada is going to have a bad fire season,” said Mr. Flannigan, noting there were not enough resources for two-thirds of the season last year, including water bombers.
Flin Flon, Man., mayor George Fontaine said there were times last year when his community needed the service of water bombers, but they weren’t available because they were being used in another wildfire in the province.
Around 4,800 residents were evacuated from Flin Flon because of wildfires last year.
“We had fire all around us, so we would’ve welcomed any assistance we got,” Mr. Fontaine said.
“It’s going to be safer to have more planes available when we can get them. I recognize nothing happens overnight. So, we’ll have to make do with whatever it is we have.”