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Whitewater First Nation Chief Pauline Drake, shown in Thunder Bay on Tuesday, said her community was not told about the potential severity of the wildfires and the risk to their homes in the preceding days.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
First Nations chiefs from Northern Ontario demanded a public inquiry and the resignation of leadership at Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources after they say their communities were forced to flee raging wildfires without help from the province.
At a news conference in Thunder Bay on Tuesday, Gull Bay First Nation Chief Wilfred King said a thorough independent investigation is needed into the systemic issues that have affected the emergency response by the province.
Other Indigenous leaders have said over the past week they received little or no communication about whether and when to evacuate.
Chief Helen Paavola, of the Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, has said her community had to decide for themselves to get out, using boats to get across the lake from their community, which has been entirely wiped out.
Whitewater First Nation Chief Pauline Drake said her community was not told about the potential severity of the wildfires and the risk to their homes in the days before the fires.
“It’s just last minute. We’re the last people to be told and notified,” she said.
Mr. King, whose community remains under an evacuation order, said he has not been contacted by Premier Doug Ford nor any minister since his community was engulfed last week.
“Nobody has reached out to us, and they’re the ones that are responsible,” he said.
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During an update Monday, Mr. Ford and his ministers said they had been in touch with several First Nations leaders over the last week. Mr. Ford’s office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Many of the wildfires across Northwestern Ontario are believed to have been triggered by a lightning storm under extreme fire weather conditions. While it’s not possible to predict exactly where a wildfire will strike, a measure of risk called the Fire Weather Index had been rising across the region for days. It was at the highest possible level on July 13 and 14 when the fires exploded.
The Globe and Mail asked the Ontario Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services whether it has any policies in place to warn remote communities of rising fire risk before a fire ignites, but the agency has yet to respond.
An evacuation order is currently in place for communities around 200 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, with evacuees sent to nine municipalities across the province.
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Cots are laid out at Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay on Monday. The arena has been turned into a provincial reception centre for wildfire evacuees.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
There are more than 180 active wildfires in Ontario, mostly in the northwestern region of the province. Of those, 51 are out of control, seven are being held, 12 are under control and 112 are being observed.
This wildfire season may be the biggest on record in Ontario, with current estimates suggesting more than 7,250 square kilometres of forest burned, mostly in the last 10 days.
Across Canada there are 889 fires burning, with the majority in the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. Wildfires have burned roughly three million hectares across the country, putting 2026 on track to be the third-largest wildfire season in Canadian history.
Officials in B.C. warned residents Tuesday to expect more wildfires as lightning is forecast in parts of the province later this week, and rising temperatures have triggered heat warnings in many areas.
B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said so far, the season has been manageable: Of the 182 new fires in the past week, 80 per cent have been declared out, contained or held at fewer than 10 hectares.
There are just over 760 front-line firefighters deployed across the province, Mr. Parmar said, with another 700 still in reserve.
There are roughly 600 properties under evacuation orders in B.C., the majority of them from the Fraser Canyon communities, and another 5,700 properties under evacuation alerts, including roughly 8,000 people in the East Kootenay town of Kimberley, B.C.
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Hugh Murdoch, the incident commander in charge of the Bootleg complex fires near Kimberley, said firefighters are making good progress and that recent weather has been favourable, giving firefighters the upper hand for the moment.
“That said, we are aware that the weather will not always be so co-operative,” Mr. Murdoch said.
“We’re looking at Thursday as a significant weather day, which is why we’re bringing in more resources to continue the good fight,” he said.
Don McCormick, the mayor of Kimberley, said that, despite the risks, the town remains in good spirits, and people are prepared.
“I think we’re in a pretty good place right now,” he said.
“There’s no smoke in town. It’s blue sky, and in fact, if you didn’t know what was going on and you just came to town, it would be one of those days that would be business as usual.”
The town has been under evacuation alert before, Mr. McCormick said, including in 2018 when things did not go as smoothly as they are now. After that incident, the municipality identified numerous holes in their preparedness planning and fixed them.
This time, they are prepared, he said.
“I think we’re in as good a shape as we can, even though we are in some danger right now,” he said.
“The fire itself is only 10 kilometres from Kimberley so if the winds went up to 50k, shifted to the west, that would be cause for concern.”