TORONTO — The Ontario NDP and Indigenous leaders on Thursday afternoon repeated their call for a public inquiry into the province’s handling of wildfires.
A few hours earlier, Natural Resources Minister Mike Harris repeated his assurance that the government will review its work after the forest fire season ends.
Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government “needs to be held responsible for their failure to prepare” for this year’s highly disruptive and destructive fire season, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa said in a news conference in Toronto with caucus colleagues and First Nation chiefs.
Asked during a morning news conference in Queen’s Park about calls for a public inquiry, Harris did not commit to one.
“Well, after every fire season we do quite a deep dive into, I guess, the good things that have happened, maybe some of the challenges that we had, things we can work on, things we can replicate for the following year,” he said.
“But I want to make it very clear, we’re very focused right now on making sure that people and property are saved.
“So we’re focusing our efforts at this point in time on suppression, on values protection, and we’re going to continue to do that for the time being.”
Speaking at the news conference held by the NDP, Cat Lake First Nation Chief Russell Wesley said First Nations appear to get a “second-tier approach” to wildfire protection.
The province needs a public inquiry, he said, because “we are in crisis.”
“Ontario is burning and there’s no end in sight,” Wesley said. “And there’s no strategy.”
“It’s not only First Nations that deserve an inquiry, it’s Ontarians” he said later in the news conference.
Mamakwa, whose riding includes Cat Lake and many other affected First Nations, said the province’s budget for wildfire suppression should “at the minimum” be doubled.
Chief Merle Loon of Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation said “we are now living with the consequences” of government cutbacks and shortsightedness.
JP Hornick, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said the Ford government has failed to provide firefighting crews with the funding, equipment and staffing they need.
“This is a complete failure of leadership,” he said.
In the government news conference, Harris said his ministry has responded well to what has been “an unprecedented season so far.”
He added that “things are calming down now. They’re getting back to normal, and we’re able to manage the situation a lot better.”
According to a provincial website, there were 117 active wildland fires in Ontario’s Northwest region as of 6:25 p.m. Wednesday, the largest fire being the record-breaking Thunder Bay 36.
The website said 25 fires in the region, including Thunder Bay 36, were not under control.
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Jul 30, 2026 at 20:09
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