Ottawa launches national aerial firefighting fleet for 2026 wildfire season

A water bomber provides a steady steam of water to assist crews on the ground at the Paddy's Pond wildfire, just outside St. John's, N.L., on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly

OTTAWA — The federal government has set up Canada’s first-ever reserve of firefighting aircraft to help provinces and territories respond to the 2026 wildfire season.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, or CIFFC, has leased 10 aircraft and two unspecified support assets for 150 days starting this month, thanks to a $317-million spending allocation in the federal budget.

Asset Program will boost national firefighting surge capacity by increasing provincial and territorial access to aircraft during periods of intense wildfire activity.

Provincial and territorial wildfire agencies will be able to request the use of four air tankers, one spotter plane and five heavy lift helicopters to fight wildfires. The fleet will be sourced from British Columbia-based firms Conair Group, Coldstream Helicopters and VIH Helicopters.

Before now, wildfire responses have been managed on a provincial and territorial basis, with respective governments working with CIFFC to share resources across borders where necessary. This is the first time a national fleet of aircraft will be available to respond where needed.

Kelsey Winter, executive director of CIFFC, said at a media event at the Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa on Monday that the newly leased fleet will add to the existing model, not replace it.

“The program increases our availability of aircraft when existing fleets within provincial and territorial agencies are stretched thin, and it strengthens Canada’s collective ability to move aircraft where it is needed most,” Winter said.

The assets will be positioned within Canada based on fire activity forecasts and current wildfire activity.

The 2025 wildfire season was Canada’s second-worst on record, with nearly 90,000 square kilometres consumed as of September 2025 -- an area larger than New Brunswick. That came just two years after the worst ever season on record in 2023, when more than 165,000 square kilometres burned.

Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski said Monday that wildfires are becoming “more severe and more frequent,” so the government saw the need to invest in a national service.

NDP MP Gord Johns -- who petitioned the government to create a national firefighting service before the fall budget last year -- said in a statement Monday that setting up the fleet was “an important and overdue step.”

“This announcement is progress, but the scale of the climate crisis demands sustained action and long-term investment,” Johns said.

MP Dane Lloyd, the Conservatives’ critic for emergency preparedness, said in a statement through the Opposition Leader’s Office that it’s “about time” the Liberals started building out Canada’s wildfire fighting capacity.

Ottawa chose to lease, not buy, the firefighting assets because the wait for new aircraft can exceed five years, Olszewski said. This approach also means the federal government isn’t paying for a plane that will sit idle over the winter months, she said.

“We wanted to make sure that we had aerial fighting, firefighting assets in place for this wildfire season. So it was very important to do that at this point in time,” Olszewski said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2026