Cause of provincial wildfires should be publicly released, says ex-cabinet minister

New Brunswick’s former public safety minister says the provincial government needs to push harder to find out the cause of more than 400 wildfires over the last few months, including a blaze that raged out of control for several days near Moncton.

Kris Austin, a Progressive Conservative MLA who a year ago was a cabinet minister in the outgoing Higgs government, raised the issue on Wednesday at the standing committee on public accounts.

He said he’s convinced many, if not most, of the fires were lit by people.

“How are these fires starting?” Austin told reporters at the legislature afterward. “It seems to be a big question mark. I get the impression government is a little hesitant to push on that. And that’s something I’d like to see more information on. How are these fires starting? We know anecdotally, at least, that a lot of them seem to be human-induced.”

Austin didn’t provide any evidence that people caused New Brunswick’s fires, but he argued that in most places outside of New Brunswick, humans typically cause more than half of forest fires. Campfires, fireworks, off-road vehicles, and tossed cigarettes are often to blame.

New Brunswick authorities have repeatedly said they were focused on putting out blazes, not finding the cause right away. They have never definitely said any of the wildfires this season to arson, or any other human cause.

Several fires sparked in the northeast of the province in August were caused by dry lightning strikes, they said. Others are still being investigated, including the Irishtown fire near Moncton.

1,500 on evacuation standby

Austin honed in on that particular blaze, raising the possibility it could have been lit by someone. The Irishtown wildfire worried authorities so much they put 1,500 people on standby for evacuation in early August because it threatened about 900 nearby homes, before being snuffed out.

Cade Libby, the deputy minister of natural resources, told Austin the Irishtown fire was still under investigation. He repeated the message to reporters after the committee session.

“I don’t want to speculate at this point, other than we are completing an investigation of the start of that fire, and we’ll see what the conclusion is after that,” Libby said.

Austin didn’t explain why he thought someone had started the Irishtown fire. Questioned by Brunswick News, the MLA for Fredericton-Grand Lake said it was important for reporters to keep demanding questions of the deputy minister and the Department of Public Safety.

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“I’m not going to elaborate on anything. I think it’s important that the departments do their job and find out how that fire started. It’s not for me to say.”

During the total fire ban in New Brunswick that stretched between part of August and September, 43 people were fined for lighting campfires or breaking other rules, with one person receiving a warning instead of a ticket. 

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The fines totaled over $2,000 for those people, with the largest fine issued to an unnamed forestry operation for not having the proper firefighting equipment.

Liberal Premier Susan Holt said repeatedly during news conferences about the crisis over the summer she didn’t want to focus on punishments.

Austin questioned if that was good enough. During the height of the wildfire season, New Brunswick banned any work and also forbade people from doing recreational activities on Crown, or public, land.

“When you talk about burn bans, and someone intentionally lights a fire, throw the book at them,” the politician said. “I’m not as concerned as someone taking their dog for a walk in the woods.”

Despite the criticism, Austin praised the department for its firefighting efforts, applauding the staff for the fact that no lives or buildings were lost. NB Power lost power poles near Miramichi and several firefighters were sent to hospital from heat exhaustion, but no one was seriously hurt.

The deputy minister warned that given the dry conditions, the wildfire season could be extended beyond the normal date, which runs from the third Monday in April until Oct. 31 each year.

As of Wednesday, 421 forest fires had burned more than 3,500 hectares this year.

That compares to a 25-year average of 240 fires and only 312 hectares burned annually. The total loss of forests to fire this year was more than 10 times the average.

The provincial government lifted a temporary fire ban across New Brunswick on Wednesday following a good soak, but it could be reimposed if the weather gets too hot and dry again.

“This is probably one of the worst years we’ve had,” Libby said. “Could we see more starts or ignitions? Yes, we could, especially if we don’t get the rain. Today’s rain is helping, but we do need more of it.”