Prime Minister Mark Carney said climate change is a “major challenge” facing Canada and that he plans to hold a discussion on the issue of wildfires at next month’s G7 summit in Alberta. [emphasis, links added]
Jasper National Park, a world heritage site near Kananaskis where this year’s G7 meeting will be held, was the site of a devastating wildfire in 2024 and a source of controversy regarding the federal government’s mismanagement of the situation.
On Thursday’s Rebel Roundup livestream, hosts Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle shared their thoughts on Carney’s G7 announcement of the world leaders’ wildfire discussion.
“Are they going to talk about their own negligence and park mismanagement that make the forest fires exponentially worse?” asked Lise. “About their complicity? I bet not.”
Instead, G7 leaders will likely “blame it all on climate change and how using fossil fuels is making it worse,” she said.
The failure to protect Jasper was due to years of mismanagement, Sheila said, “resulting in a fire that they could not contain because they turned away firefighters, didn’t manage the pine beetle-caused fuel load in the forest because it was unsightly to mechanically clear, and they put in the wrong fire hydrants.”
Maintenance duties inside the national park fall to the federal government. Outside, it’s the responsibility of the provincial government.
“That fire started in the park, raged in the park, and ended once it exited the park. Why? Because of proper fire management. The forest outside of the park, managed by the provincial government and forestry companies. Inside the park, [then environment minister] Steven Guilbeault’s problem,” Sheila continued.
“And yet, they’re going to take the G7 and the fires from last year, and the ones from this year to, to talk about how, I don’t know, they’re going to carbon tax us in new and creative ways because the old creative way became so unpalatable for Canadians.”
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