Canada's minister responsible for forests said he is reflecting on hard lessons from this year's record wildfire season, including the possible need for standardizing firefighter training across provincial borders and beyond.
"This summer has turned into a challenging marathon," Michael Norton, a director general of Natural Resources Canada, told the briefing. "Unfortunately, bottom line: fire season is not over." Wilkinson said the training program was an example of the federal government learning from the wildfire season, which saw major blazes this year force evacuations in the suburbs of Halifax, as well as in towns such as Lebel-sur-Quevillon in Quebec and Fort St. John and Osoyoos in British Columbia.
“We recognize it's a dangerous job … that's why we need to make sure we have training and the equipment to make sure we do the job safely,” Liivam said.Canada has already deployed 5,821 domestic firefighters and 4,990 international firefighters from 12 countries to battle wildfires across the country, said Norton.