The Canadian government recently announced that it will lease a fleet of 10 firefighting aircraft and other support assets to be deployed for the 2026 wildfire season. The plan will see these 10 leased aircraft being managed by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre deployed strategically across the country and made available to provinces as they face intense wildfires.

The new aircraft include four firefighting air tankers, one birddog plane and five heavy lift helicopters, with operating crew and maintenance support to be provided by the leasing companies.

This announcement follows the government’s fall 2025 budget announcement of a $316.7-million investment in Canada’s aerial wildfire-fighting capacity — an announcement that marked an important acknowledgement of a growing national challenge to improving the response to elevated wildfire activity. After record fire seasons in 2023 and 2025, the federal government is stepping into a domain long dominated by the provinces.

This surge model is intended to provide additional capacity when provincial resources are stretched. Increasing the wildfire aerial firefighting asset base is very welcome but remains an incomplete improvement to improving the effectiveness of the aerial wildfire firefighting strategy. Policy architecture behind this action remains incomplete.

Canada’s wildfire aviation system remains fundamentally........

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