Month: July 2026

No matter how many photographs you’ve seen of Jasper, Alberta, after the wildfire, nothing prepares you for the extent of the devastation. It simply silences you. Sadly, I speak from recent experience.

Picture this. You’re driving up what many say is the most beautiful road in the world, Alberta’s Highway 93. There are bears, mountain goats not to be confused with mountain sheep and elk feeding on lush vegetation.

Then you turn toward Jasper and, suddenly, you’re in the middle of the apocalypse. There are charred trees as far as the eye can see because after the wildfire broke out two years ago on July 22, 2024, it raced through so fast it didn’t burn the trees all the way to the ground. They are still standing, a haunting reminder that Canada’s wildfire crisis isn’t going anywhere.

Canadians know this and it frightens them. The Fort McMurray fire was 10 years ago. Slave Lake burned 15 years ago. Yet the federal government has responded with half-measures, moving much slower than the pace of climate change itself. Our country has been hit with back-to-back-to-back record-breaking wildfire seasons in 2023, 2024, and 2025. And, as I write this column, looking out my window in downtown Toronto the sky has been turned a frighting surreal colour that ought to exist in a science fiction film not in nature caused by fires burning in Northwestern Ontario.

So far, Prime Minister Mark Carney has shown himself willing to fund a visible, deployable wildfire response. This summer, Canada leased 10 new aerial firefighting aircraft. Having them on-call is a meaningful step to support the country’s surge capacity.

But as I wrote in this newspaper two summers ago, there are not enough water bombers in the world to extinguish all the fires that start burning in what has come to be called “wild fire season.”

So what’s the answer to Canada’s wildfire crisis: Stop the fires before they start. And this requires a different approach altogether: structural change. One that’s never been government’s forte. But it just might be Prime Minister Carney’s.

This is the prime minister who removed federal barriers to internal trade and created a fast-track mechanism to approve “nation-building” projects. Who told Canadians that, “hope isn’t a plan and nostalgia is not a strategy.”

What Carney must do is take heed of the 15 recommendations in the recent Senate report “Canada on Fire.” They are thoughtful, thorough, and timely — the Upper Chamber at its finest. The central recommendation is that Canada must create a federal co-ordinating office for wildfires and emergency response, modelled after those in the United States and the United Kingdom, among others.

Some Canadians might bristle at the creation of another new government body. However, the status quo means Canada’s provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous communities and governments are not working in sync.

The Senators heard from people who know that this lack of co-ordination is directly tied to delayed response times, inconsistent planning, uneven access to equipment and personnel, and a system that mobilizes only once disaster is already underway.

What Ottawa should take away from the report is that inaction has had consequences; but it’s not too late to make headway. Canada should establish a national wildfire hazard mapping program like it has to predict droughts and floods. It should also create a national reforestation strategy.

Critically, it must consult Indigenous communities, who have deep knowledge and expertise in fire management. Indigenous firefighting forces should be supported and expanded.

Typically, after a crisis like the Jasper wildfire, people expect accountability. They have questions and demand answers. Did you determine what happened and do something about it? Did you hold someone accountable? Did you make everyone whole? Did you review your policies to make sure they were sufficiently robust? Are you certain this is not part of a pattern? Today, the government gets a failing grade on most of these points.

Now, there is some good news. Jasper is coming back to life. The rebuilding of the commercial core is well underway. New businesses have opened their doors. There are new sprouts of green dotting the landscape. Nature is doing what nature does.

You could spin this as a hopeful story — but it should never have happened in the first place.

Ottawa has until December to respond formally to the Senate’s June report. There has been no indication yet whether the federal co-ordination centre is being considered.

Carney must make good on his promise to do things differently. This is no time for a piecemeal approach. The Senate called for the government to act at “the speed of the crisis.” That’s exactly how we can change course and avert further disasters.

Let’s thank U.S. President Donald Trump for one thing. As Ottawa launches a national competition to restore 24 Sussex Drive, the White House renovations are a lesson in what not to do. A master class, really.

Trump is building to glorify himself. The “goldening” of the Oval Office, the transformation of the Rose Garden into a Mar-a-Lago-style patio designed to please one man alone. Canada’s plan, by contrast, is to build in the national interest.

The new home of Canada’s prime ministers should be dignified, inspiring, and equal to this moment. This is a generational opportunity to build a residence by Canadians, for Canadians. That it comes at a time when our sovereignty is under threat from a hostile neighbour is not incidental. It is the point.

While minds seem set on rehabilitating the existing property, I see things differently. The residence has been sitting vacant for 10 years. The best thing you can say about the place is that they’ve gotten rid of the asbestos, mould, and rodents. Any renovation is going to creep closer to a major construction project.

So let’s start fresh — tear down what stands and build a new home from the ground up.

Naysayers might retort that you’d never tear down the White House or 10 Downing Street. But these aren’t apples-to-apples comparisons. Americans are rightly aghast at Trump’s destruction of the East Wing because it was purpose-built for the nation. The house at 24 Sussex has a different history — not as long or storied as many assume.

Think of Wilfrid Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King — giants from our history books who lived somewhere else entirely, at Laurier House in Sandy Hill. Laurier, who once imagined this country as a great cathedral — “I want the marble to remain the marble; the granite to remain the granite; the oak to remain the oak; and out of these elements, I would build a nation great among the nations of the world” — never set foot in 24 Sussex as prime minister. Because 24 Sussex was built in the 1860s as a private residence, a wedding gift from a logging baron for his new bride.

In the 1940s, the federal government expropriated the riverfront property — then couldn’t decide what to do with it. The house slowly degraded in limbo. (Sound familiar?) Finally, in 1950, work began to strip it down to the studs. It was renovated, remodelled, redecorated. The final product would have been unrecognizable to the logging baron and his wife.

Only 10 prime ministers have called 24 Sussex home, from Louis St. Laurent to Stephen Harper. Guests in the later years noticed plastic film on the windows, a sad attempt to keep out the winter draft. The cold crept in anyway.

Ask young Canadians to picture the prime minister’s home and they’ll likely recall Justin Trudeau giving COVID-19 updates in front of Rideau Cottage. The world has moved on.

The property itself, though, is something else entirely. There is no need to change the address. Two hectares overlooking the Ottawa River and the Gatineau Hills, where the landscape opens up and the country itself seems to breathe. Moshe Safdie, the celebrated architect who will chair the jury for the new design competition, called it precisely right: “It’s an extraordinary site with extraordinary potential. Something wonderful can be developed here.” With the right design, this can be a home worthy of the office it serves — and of the nation that office represents.

A few guidelines: the new 24 Sussex must meet modern needs, including a security perimeter and generous reception capacity. The ground floor should be public space, open for tours, showcasing Canadian art and design. The upper floor should be the prime minister’s living quarters — reconfigurable to suit different families.

Canada’s architects are ready. Pressuring them to work within the confines of an existing 19th-century structure would be a dead weight on their imaginations. Cast it away. Consider what happens when someone like Hariri Pontarini is set free: gems like the Tom Patterson Theatre in Stratford and Casey House in Toronto emerge — buildings that feel both rooted in this country and alive to its possibilities.

Getting this right will bolster national pride at a moment when we are seeking to redefine ourselves in a new world order. Renovation is a compromise with the wrong priorities. Build a new home that showcases a new Canada — one that is, as our anthem has always promised us, strong and free.