Officials say wildfire activity in Canada “has really grown and accelerated significantly” as over four million hectares have been burned across the country.
“We know that we’re still in the heart of the wildfire season and that some communities across the country face really difficult and sometimes uncertain conditions,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Eleanor Olszewski said in a press conference Tuesday.
There are currently 582 active wildfires burning across Canada, 31 of which are labelled as out of control, according to Natural Resources Canada.
On a July 9 update, officials said that although it is a “challenging” year, the 2026 wildfire season has “not reached the scale seen in 2025.” More than 8.3 million hectares were burned in 2025.
Olszewski said that wildfire activity “really intensified in the month of July,” and that “across the country, the wildfire season remains serious.”
Officials previously warned on May 28 that “significant wildfire activity” was expected in B.C. in the federal government’s wildfire season preparedness and outlook for 2026 at the start of the season.
Summerland residents in British Columbia are starting to walk back through their front doors as parts of the community begin to reopen following the Bald Range wildfire, which continues to burn across more than 21,000 hectares. About 150 structures have been either destroyed or damage as a result.
More than 500 international firefighters from Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Costa Rica are supporting firefighting operations in B.C., Olszewski said.
“This year’s wildfire season is very intense in the United States as well, and particularly in Oregon and in Washington state. And so in terms of ability for the U.S. to provide firefighting assistance, it’s just not there,” Olszewski said.
Many parts of Canada were blanketed in thick smoke in July as smoke from wildfires in northwestern Ontario triggered very poor air quality and reduced visibility, Environment Canada said at the time.
As a result, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to tariff Canada for the smoke, saying that American air was “poisoned.”
“If we can help them, we’ll help them. But maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs,” he had said.