Firefighter understaffing in Ontario is worse than previously understood, these numbers show

Hamilton Spectator

06-07-2025

Halfway through one of the biggest forest fire seasons on record, new numbers show Ontario's shortage of wildland firefighters, equipment and staff is worse than previously understood.
Thirteen pilot positions and seven aircraft maintenance engineer jobs remain unfilled and as a result, according to OPSEU, the public sector union that represents wildland fire fighters, nearly a third of Ontario's forest fire aviation fleet has been grounded.
These shortages have left the province scrambling to fight dozens of fires burning simultaneously, including one that is now the
second biggest fire in Ontario's history
, and calling on other provinces for help.
'We are in an incredible crisis due to climate change, but also due to underfunding and understaffing,' said OPSEU President JP Hornick.
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'We've lost firefighters at the same time that the need for them has increased,' they said. 'We have increasing numbers of fires up north. They're increasing in size and intensity. But our reaction time is slowing and the fires are escaping containment more often.'
Climate change is driving
a long-term trend toward more and bigger forest fires
and Ontario is currently facing one of its worst fire seasons on record. With three months to go, more than 375,000 hectares of forest have already burned, the fifth highest total in the last 30 years. In June, three First Nations in the north
were evacuated
.
Last month, the Star revealed that
Ontario is operating with more than 100 fewer wildland firefighters than it did 10 years ago
– fielding 630 fire rangers, when it used to have 732 – leading to a drop in the number of forest fires brought under control within 24 hours, key to avoiding the massive conflagrations that consume entire communities.
New staffing numbers provided by OPSEU show how that 14 per cent reduction in personnel is exacerbated on the ground, with 27 per cent fewer crews – groups of four or five fire rangers – available to dispatch to forest fires.
This year, Ontario is short 53 of the 190 crews it used to operate, with only 60 out of 101 crews in the Northwest Region, west of Marathon, and 77 of 89 crews in the Northeastern Region, stretching from Marathon down to the French and Mattawa Rivers.
Shortstaffing means that wildfire fighters are being worked to the bone, said Noah Freedman, vice president of OPSEU Local 703.
Fire Rangers have been working flat out since early May, he said. They've just finished their third 19 day shift in a row, with only two days off between shifts, and they're getting burned out.
'The young people, the lack of experience. As fatigue builds, you have people who already don't know what they're doing making poorer and poorer decisions,' said Freedman.
Natural Resources Minister Mike Harris Jr. declined an interview request and sent a statement in response to questions from the Star.
'Ontario works with provincial, federal, and international partners to ensure the necessary resources are deployed to keep communities in our province, and across North America, safe,' the statement read. 'These mutual aid partnership agreements enable the sharing of additional personnel, equipment, and aircraft.'
The province has already received aid from Quebec and B.C., which have sent two waterbombers and more than 100 firefighters this season, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) said nine waterbombers are available this season, though it was unclear whether this total includes the waterbombers on loan from Quebec.
Harris Jr.'s office disputed the notion that the Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services branch (AFFES) is understaffed, saying there isn't an ideal number of fire rangers but a target 'range' for hiring.
'We're comfortable with the number of crews we have,' said an official in the minister's office, whom the Star agreed not to name so they could speak on background. 'We have a lot of confidence in our fire rangers.'
'It would be ideal to be fully staffed, but we're not there,' the official added. 'We'd hire more if there were more applications.'
OPSEU says AFFES staff are leaving for more lucrative jobs because Ontario's waterbomber pilots are the worst paid in the country and the fire rangers are among the worst paid.
Starting pay for Ontario wildland firefighters is $25.38 an hour.
While Premier Doug Ford has announced the purchase of six new waterbombers, the half a billion dollars associated with their purchase and staffing
has not been allocated in the budget
. Due to a backlog in orders, the planes would not be delivered for nearly a decade.
But Hornick said there's no use in buying new waterbombers if we can't staff the ones we already have.
Fewer pilots means the ones on staff are being worked to the bone. Working shifts that last 10 days, pilots are getting sick and planes are being grounded when they're unavailable to fly, Hornick said. This was the case in June when two waterbombers were grounded due to pilot illness as blazes grew across the north.
That's in addition to another waterbomber grounded due to lack of crew, bringing the total to three waterbombers, three helicopters, two Turbo Beaver bushplanes and one Twin Otter float plane grounded this season, OPSEU numbers show.
This represents nine of the 28 aircraft operated by the Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services branch (AFFES) of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The loss of experience through retirement is being felt throughout the AFFES, said Hornick. The chief helicopter pilot retired two years ago and hasn't been replaced, they said. (The MNR says 'a temporary Chief Rotary Wing Pilot is in place.') Twenty of 46 aircraft mechanics have left in the last five years.
Overall, there's a 40 per cent turnover at the AFFES, leading to younger and less experienced staff being promoted into positions of responsibility, Hornick added.
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The MNR said it has brought in a number of measures to reduce turnover, including establishing 100 new year-round support jobs, reimbursing training costs and expanding standby pay and on-call benefits.
At the same time, however, recruitment numbers have plummeted, Hornick said, making it harder to train up the next generation of firefighters.
'We're seeing fewer and fewer applications,' they said. 'Anecdotally, I've heard stories about literally trying to recruit people off the street to apply.'