Michigan lawmakers press Carney on poor air quality from wildfire smoke

In an open letter, four members of Congress said their constituents in Michigan were living under air quality alerts

Some U.S. lawmakers pressed Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to do something about wildfires that are sending smoke south of the border. Dozens of fires burning in northern Ontario have forced people from their communities and destroyed homes in Namaygoosisagagun First Nation north of Thunder Bay. Smoke from those fires has blanketed much of southern Ontario and large swaths of the United States in a thick blanket.

“Hey Canada, ‘just let it burn’ is not a solution. Unless you want to become the 51st state, learn to manage your forests,” Aric Nesbitt, a Republican state senator in Michigan, said in an online post. Four Republican members of Congress in Michigan called for Canada to act on the smoke Wednesday, saying their patience has run out.

“We are done accepting apologies in place of action. If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people,” they said in an open letter to Carney. Asked about the U.S. criticism on Thursday at a news conference in London, Ont., Carney brushed it off.

Speaking in French, he said Canada is emphasizing investments in clean energy, while the U.S. is actively working against clean energy. U.S. environmental group BlueGreen Alliance this week said President Donald Trump’s policies have cancelled or delayed 139 clean energy and industrial projects worth almost US$31-billion. “Fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States,” Carney said in French.

Carney however was forced to defend his own government’s record on the environment, in the face of the fires. He acknowledged in a video in late June that his policies will lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions than had been expected under the policies of his predecessor, but insists it’s for the greater good of Canada to balance resource projects like a new pipeline, with environmental investments. Carney said the government is taking an investment-driven approach, which includes plans to double the size of Canada’s electricity grid.

He told reporters his government is building preconditions to reduce climate-altering carbon emissions into investments like the new pipeline agreement with Alberta. “What you see is the investments or the major projects that we’re helping to catalyze are low-carbon,” he said. Carney said Canada has “relied too much on targets, laws, that weren’t driving the actual investment that’s necessary to reduce emissions.

So we’ve shifted our focus.” He said his government’s climate strategy is focused on affordability in the short term. “We have amongst the lowest electricity costs in the world.

We want to keep those,” Carney said. In their letter, four members of Congress said their constituents in Michigan were living under air quality alerts. “Our hospitals are once again treating children, dialysis patients, and older residents for the effects of smoke that did not originate anywhere near them,” the letter said.

“This is the third consecutive year we have had to write to Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to.” The United States is also grappling with its own fires. The National Interagency Fire Center says 39,764 fires have burned more than 3.67 million acres.

“Firefighters continue responding to incidents from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest, Great Basin and Rocky Mountain areas,” the centre said Thursday. A 56-year-old Canadian helicopter pilot from British Columbia died on July 12 when the aircraft he was piloting crashed helping fight fires in Colorado.