More fires mean more smoke. That’s why B.C. reporter Shannon Waters and I wanted to take a quick look at health impacts from the wildfire smoke, in an article we published today.

I’m lucky in southern Ontario. Yes, the smoke is deeply toxic, headache-inducing and disruptive, but I’m reasonably safe.

Toronto-based campaigner Amara Possian shares the sentiment in a new essay: she’s anxious parenting her newborn, but knows she can shut the windows and wait out the smoke.
 

For many in northern Ontario, it’s a more terrifying story — one of slow responses and extreme risk.

At least 15 communities, most of them Indigenous, have either begun or completed evacuations. Members of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation (also known as Collins First Nation) — located about 210 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, and inaccessible by road — were the first to self-evacuate, largely by boat, “with only the clothes on their back,” Chief Helen Paavola said in a statement. People are now waiting for the Ministry of Natural Resources to give official confirmation “that our community was completely devastated by this forest fire.” 

I’ve seen reports of road closures that are restricting the delivery of food and medical assistance to northern Indigenous communities. Power lines have also burned down in some parts, limiting residents’ ability to stay updated or ask for help if needed. 

Fire crews are struggling to respond properly; the local fire department in Upsala has said their fire “is too large to fight.” Its message to the community is to “get your essentials together and be ready to run.” 

In B.C., Indigenous journalism fellow Santana Dreaver knows what that means. She’s living near a wildfire in Lytton — and as you’ll see in her first video for The Narwhal, her bags are packed and in her car, ready to go at a moment’s notice. 

Time and again, we’ve learned that wildfires and smoke move really, really fast, while our response to them often does not. That’s a choice. 

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has significantly weakened or sidelined environmental policy, including by underfunding fire response and loosening forest management rules, in a bid to build. That includes a push for mines and pipelines in the very region that’s on fire right now.

As entire communities seek refuge, the potential consequences of those decisions are evident now across the whole, hazy province. We’ll continue to keep watch on those natural resource projects — and the natural disasters that come with our warming world. 

Take care and stay safe,

Fatima Syed
Ontario reporter

This week in The Narwhal