How Canada helped in past U.S. wildfires as Ford says some are ‘chirping’ – National

As wildfires continue to burn across Canada, American politicians have been vocal about their displeasure surrounding smoke that has made its way to American skies, including taking aim at Canadian sovereignty.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said to reporters Friday that he “truly believe[s] the Americans are good neighbours,” but added: “If there’s some politicians out there chirping away, well, maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help, because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends. And that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

That comes after Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives Jack Bergman, John James, Lisa McClain and John Moolenaar penned a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney and sent it on Wednesday “demanding immediate action from the Canadian government.”

“American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year,” the letter said.

“Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country’s airspace has not been met.”

The reference to Canadian sovereignty comes from U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to make Canada the “51st state” and after repeated threats to annex Greenland.

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Defence Minister David McGuinty announced Friday that the Canadian Armed Forces are currently on “standby” to help Ontario deal with the impacts of the wildfires raging in the northern regions of the province.

According to Natural Resources Canada and the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, there are actively 903 wildfires burning across Canada, with 3,656 total being reported in 2026. Nearly 200 wildfires are currently blazing across northern Ontario, provincial officials said Friday.

The comments from American officials come after years of support sent south by Canadians to help fight American wildfires, however. Here are some of the recent examples.

From Jan. 7 to 31, 2025, 14 major wildfires affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area and San Diego County in California.

On Jan. 12, 2025, former emergency preparedness minister Harjit Sajjan posted on X that the federal government, alongside Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, was ready to deploy 250 firefighters, aircraft equipment and other resources, saying that “our American friends have asked for help to fight the wildfires in California and Team Canada is responding.”

He also added that the Canadian Armed Forces were also standing by to move personnel and equipment, with the Canadian Coast Guard being made available as well.

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Sajjan posted the next day that “this is what neighbours do.”

According to Natural Resources Canada, “in 2020, 594 Canadian firefighters and specialist staff participated in deployments to the United States.”

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) mobilized two wildland firefighting hand crews from Quebec on Sept. 10, 2020, to assist with wildfire suppression efforts in California.

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Two Canadian crews, with 40 firefighters, and agency representatives arrived at NIFC that week.

At the time, 59 large wildfires were burning across the western U.S., and more than 5.2 million acres had burned at that point in the year.

Nearly seven million acres of land burned across Texas to Montana, which directly borders Canada, in 2000, costing the American government More than US$2 billion in damages.

The country also experienced “atypical dry conditions” that year, according to a report from the National Park Service. Fire crews responded to the blaze from late April to the end of October.

In response, more than 1,300 Canadian personnel were mobilized to the U.S. in what Natural Resources Canada calls a “truly record-setting year.”

The U.S. has in the past also sent firefighting support to help Canadian responders fight fires.

In June 2025, the U.S. National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) “mobilized federal firefighting personnel to support wildfire suppression efforts in Canada” across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, B.C. and Alberta, sending 214 resources, including airtankers, crews, overhead staff and complex incident management teams.

Canada saw its second-worst wildfire season on record in 2025, with fires that burned in a majority of provinces across the country.

In June 2023, the NICC stated that multiple requests for resources from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) would be filled for Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec.

These resources included hand crews, incident management teams, fireline leadership positions and various aviation assets.

The 2023 wildfire season has been recognized as Canada’s worst on record.

The NICC announced on July 19, 2023 that “more than 2,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel from the U.S. have been deployed to assist with fires in Canada.”

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Canada also received support from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Mexico to combat those wildfires.

“The mobilization, which began on May 8, currently includes 567 U.S. fire personnel assigned to wildfires in multiple provinces in Canada,” the press release reads.

“We’re glad we can continue to support Canada while they continue to experience unprecedented activity,” said Jeff Arnberger, chair of the NMAC, said at the time. “As long as they need us, we will continue to help Canada’s firefighters.”

According to Natural Resources Canada, the U.S. sent 418 firefighting personnel to help in 2019, 12 in 2018 and 47 in 2017.

Republican congressman Nick Langworthy posted on X that “Canada must take meaningful action to prevent these catastrophic wildfires and protect both Canadians and Americans.”

“If it refuses to do so, there should be consequences.”

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Republican congressman Bill Huizenga also said on X that “Canada’s inability to mitigate, contain, and prevent its wildfires must be addressed. These annual fires significantly harm not only our health and quality of life, but also our economic prosperity.”

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said in a Wednesday press release that “the United States will continue to coordinate closely with Canada, just as we have for more than four decades of shared wildfire emergencies.”

Parliamentary secretary to the federal energy and natural resources minister Corey Hogan announced on Aug. 12, 2025 that $45.7 million in funding would go towards wildfire prevention and risk assessment research projects.

This came after Michigan Rep. John James sent a letter to Carney saying his constituents were choking on toxic wildfire smoke, with another group of Republican members of Congress expressing similar concerns to Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, earlier in July 2025.