The Government of Alberta has announced that the start of this year’s wildfire season has begun 10 days early, in advance of expected conditions that may lead to increased wildfire danger in 2024.

Todd Loewen, Minister of Forestry and Parks, made the announcement on Feb. 20, addressing what he said was a proactive approach by the province towards unfavourable wildlife conditions brought on by lower-than-average forecast precipitation and El Niño weather conditions.

“Although last year as wildfire season ended last November, we have never stopped working to increase our understanding of the nature of wildfire and fine tune our ability to respond. But we are ready to tackle the upcoming wildfire season head-on,” he said.

“To better direct our resources to fight new and existing wildfires. We’re declaring an early start to the 2024 wildfire season and to help ensure we have more boots on the ground to battle wildfire this year.”

Last year saw a record 2,211,900 hectares burnt from wildfires in Alberta, roughly 10 times the five-year average.

Minister Loewen also tentatively promised an increased number of firefighters being hired by the province this year by 100, to over 1,000 for the season—although the minister said that would be at the discretion of the legislative process for the upcoming 2024 Alberta Budget.

“We do have a budget process, and I can’t presuppose what the budget process is going to be, that’s something that’s decided in the legislature. And that’s why we’re we’re hesitant to talk too much about dollars and figures when it comes to what we’re doing this year as opposed to last year,” Minister Loewen said.

“Once we have that, that budget process finished, and the budgets approved, then we’ll be able to talk more on how much dollars and how much additional resources we’re putting into welfare this year as opposed to other years.”

Full number of firefighters could top 1,000

He said the number of firefighters available for the season would be completed by April 15, with firefighting crews fully staffed by May 15. He also said that there had been a record number of applicants for wildfire firefighting positions in the province.

“We have the recruitment process that’s been going on for months, and again, that’s been very successful because we’ve had a record number of applicants. So we’re good about that. I think there’s always firefighters that go from province to province territory to territory depending on where they want to live or wherever they want to fight fire,” said Loewen.

AUPE, the union that represents woodland firefighters in Alberta had a less positive take on recruitment and retention efforts for firefighters in the province, saying that there had been an ongoing issue with providing sufficient pay and poor working conditions.

“The government claims that it is prepared for this fire season, but Albertans should be concerned that this is very likely not the case,” said AUPE Vice-President James Gault.

“Many of our experienced wildfire fighters are leaving for other organizations that offer better pay, benefits, and stable employment. That is a systemic problem that cannot be solved with emergency hires mid-wildfire season.”

Mutual aid from other jurisdictions to remain part of wildfire crisis response

Minister Loewen said that the province would continue to rely on mutual aid from municipalities across the province, and from other provinces, territories, and international firefighters to address any potential wildfires this year.

“No jurisdiction has the number of firefighters available, trained, ready to go and employed on an annual basis to fight the worst fire year. That’s why we have programs in place around the world to help make sure that we could share resources,” he said.

“In Alberta, if we have the horrible season like we had last year, then we expect we’ll be bringing people from around the world to come help out. Likewise, every other jurisdiction in the world that has a worse-than-average year is going to be bringing in help from around the world to help them.”

The Calgary Fire Department said that they were among the jurisdictions ready to lend aid to the province, and other areas of the country as part of mutual aid requests.

“CFD is definitely willing to help other jurisdictions (as we have many times in the past) with structural firefighting personnel and resources as long as it does not impede our ability to adequately protect and respond to emergencies Calgarians are experiencing,” said the CFD.

According to statistics provided by the Government of Alberta, in 2023 the province relied on support from 4,038 firefighters from around the world, including 1,101 from across Canada, 1,526 from the United States, 664 from South Africa, and 574 from Australia.

Precision in forecasting months in advance difficult

Bernie Schmitte, Executive Director for Alberta Wildfire, said that the weather and predictive services sections were engaged with Environment and Climate Change Canada to determine the likely forecast for the wildfire season.

“They’re talking about lower than average precipitation at about in some areas lower than average temperatures and above average temperatures, but that’s three months out and that it’s very difficult to predict.”

Schmitte said that there was a forecast that El Niño would be decreasing in severity throughout the year, and that would likely again change the weather patterns in the province.

Environment and Climate Change Canada has forecast that the El Niño conditions would continue through the winter, while the United Nations World Meteorological Organization has forecast that the climate pattern to continue until at least April.

“What we’re doing is we’re looking at and we’re watching the weather patterns as they come in and reacting accordingly,” said Schmitte.

Minister Loewen indirectly addressed concerns about the lack of water resources to fight fires during the upcoming year due to current drought conditions, by saying that the province was monitoring the El Niño changes.

“We’ll be watching that intensely. We know that we’re in an El Niño effect right now that’s been causing us to have the warmer and drier temperatures overall, and we’re hoping that that’s coming to an end… that’s all projection at this time, and it will be again watching the weather as closely as we can as we go forward,” he said.

Already Alberta has seen a large increase in the number of carryover fires from the 2023 season, with the Alberta Wildfire Dashboard indicating that there were 52 as of Feb. 20.

The average number of carryover fires in the province is six.