There are important takeaways from our recent experience with towering wildfires — the worst we have ever seen but likely not the last.
Among them, is that we are abundantly well served by the people who answer the call to fight these fires, the professionals and the volunteers. They are fearless and heroic.
We cannot possibly repay them or thank them enough. We’ve also been mainly well served by our other first responders, the police, emergency health services, other public servants and our political leaders.
Another is that we are not currently adequately equipped to deal with what Canada’s natural resources minister recently described as “the new normal” for wildfires.
Nova Scotia does not own a single water bomber to respond quickly to massive wildfires of this kind.
It is no longer enough to rely on other provinces or U.S. states for such resources. They may well be dealing with their own fire crises. If this is truly a “new normal,” it demands a new and higher degree of self-sufficiency.
Our relatively compact geography favours the creation of a maritime, regional firefighting service.
Based at the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border, it could quickly respond to forest fires wherever they happen across the region and support other provinces when called upon — just as they have supported us. Something else for which we should be enormously grateful.
