Canadian wildfires rage as Trump warns Carney again over 'poisoning' US air

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MONTREAL — US President Donald Trump told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during the World Cup Final on Sunday to get control of wildfires burning across Canada whose smoke has been "poisoning our air" in the United States.

"If we can help them, we'll help them. But maybe they should pay some damages or something," Trump said.

With nearly 1,000 active fires and an area as large as Belgium already burned, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says his country is facing one of the “most intense” wildfire seasons in its history.

Barely halfway through the summer, virtually all Canadian provinces and territories have been affected. The largest fire, in Ontario, has forced mass evacuations and spread smoke as far as the US East Coast.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday said Trump should offer "his closest allies and friends" support "rather than sit there and threaten tariffs".

Trump on Monday slapped Canada with additional 50 percent tariffs on certain goods in response to discriminatory measures taken by Canada against US products, but a senior administration official told reporters that the tariffs were not connected to the wildfires, and that the president “has asked for options on that and options are being shared with him.”

The fires — and the smoke — have further fueled tension between Canada and the US.

The US president posted the threat on social media on Friday as thick smoke shrouded Washington DC and New York City as it drifted across a large swathe of the eastern US.

Ford told reporters on Monday that the neighbourly squabbles can be maddening.

"I get frustrated just listening to a bunch of rubbish," he told reporters at a press conference. Canada has helped during natural disasters in the US, he noted, such as Hurricane Helene and wildfires in California.

"Maybe one day you're going to need our help," Ford said.

While recent rainfall has slightly slowed the spread of the fires, more than 200 remained out of control across the country on Monday.

More than 5,000 firefighters and 300 water tankers have been mobilized, as well as the Canadian Armed Forces. So far, three million hectares (7.4 million acres) have burned.

In Quebec, authorities said assistance from the United States and France arrived at the weekend to “address the significant workload” in the northwest of the province.

Yves Bergeron, a professor at the Center for Forest Studies at the University of Quebec at Montreal, said it is “unrealistic to think we would have enough firefighters to extinguish all these fires,” which are mostly in remote areas, inaccessible by road.

“The important thing is to focus our energy on protecting villages and infrastructure,” Bergeron told AFP.

Canada’s 270 million hectares of boreal forest — that is forest in high-latitude environments — comprises 28 percent of the world’s boreal zone. It is naturally affected by lightning fires that spread rapidly through the canopy, making them difficult to control.

“Unlike Californian forests, where preventative measures can be taken through thinning, boreal forests, which are very dense, cannot be controlled,” Bergeron said.

These trees “need natural disturbances such as fires,” according to the government department Environment Canada, but suffer from repeated, intense fires that prevent them from regenerating.

Heat waves, low rainfall, and droughts contribute to the intensification of these violent fire seasons.

“There is real concern that the forest will become less resilient to climate change,” said Bergeron, who added it is normal for between 0.5 and 1.0 percent of Canadian forests to burn each year.

While still far from the devastating 2023 fire season, when nearly 18 million hectares went up in smoke, the current season could nevertheless reach new records, particularly due to the low rainfall forecast for Canada’s north and west.

Fires further south, near settlements, could force authorities to order new evacuations, as happened on Monday in Ontario.

“In the future, we will need to focus on prevention, for example, by avoiding the possibility of villages being surrounded by forests,” Bergeron said, advocating for human adaptation to these fires, which are likely to intensify year after year.