REGINA — The NDP have introduced a new private member’s bill aimed at wildfire strategy, but the early indication is it already faces an uncertain future.
Athabasca MLA Leroy Laliberte introduced Bill No. 609, the Saskatchewan Wildfire Strategy Act, for first reading Tuesday. But based on the exchange in the Legislative Assembly Tuesday, it faces major hurdles in getting the support it needs from the Sask Party majority in order to become law, as the government contends a wildfire strategy already exists.
During question period Laliberte posed the question to Minister of Public Safety Tim McLeod about a formal wildfire management strategy. In the audience that day were a number of northern residents who suffered losses during the devastating 2025 wildfire season.
“Today we are joined in the legislature by incredible people from the North, some of them that lost their homes in the wildfires, some of them that stayed behind putting their own health and safety at risk to defend their communities against the raging wildfires,” Laliberte said, as recorded in Hansard.
"These people are incredible, Mr. Speaker, yet the overwhelming majority of people told me that they don’t feel like they have a proper voice in wildfire management. Will the minister of public safety support the creation of a formal wildfire management strategy that involves public consultation and relies on the advice of people that fought fires in the North for generations?”
Minister McLeod responded, noting that Saskatchewan "does have a wildfire management strategy, and it’s based on best practice. And the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency relies upon the expertise of people who have been in this industry for over three decades, Mr. Speaker.
"Not only do they rely upon the internal resources, but when we have an extreme fire season like we had this year, we reach out to other experts in the space, many of whom have joined us here today, Mr. Speaker, in your gallery — municipal firefighters, volunteer firefighters, who have been doing this for years. Mr. Speaker, our government commends and we thank those brave men and women for their assistance in battling forest fires this summer."
Laliberte responded saying, "The wildfire management that this government has does not work. The people of the North feel like they don’t have a voice, Mr. Speaker.”
Laliberte then pointed to the situation of Trevor Sewap, who “quit out of frustration as fire base supervisor for Pelican Narrows as the fire destroyed Denare Beach.”
“He had said no one was listening, and I quote, ‘I’ve been fighting fires since before many of these people that are calling the shots were even born.’ Kari Lentowicz is also here today. She has an extensive background in disaster and emergency management, and she says that she’s not being listened to, Mr. Speaker.”
Minister McLeod said he would be happy to meet with these individuals afterwards.
Following question period, Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency President Marlo Pritchard was asked by reporters about the concerns raised by those individuals.
Pritchard said the agency had brought in experts — “retired firefighters from SPSA that had decades and decades of experience, both in Denare and Pelican Narrows as well as other regions.” He said they also worked closely with community leaders through EOCs to understand concerns, and brought in experts through international compacts that allowed additional firefighters to be deployed.
As for those local firefighters who said they were ignored, Pritchard said they would have “been contracted by our experts.”
“They were local, they live in those communities. They came up through those community so they would understand those communities as well.”
He said he would be “happy to speak to them to better understand their concerns.” As for the concerns of Sewap who had quit over the response, Pritchard said “I would love to talk to him. I won’t get into HR issues, I won’t comment on the personal situation but I would be more than happy to speak to him in person.”
As for the wildfire strategy currently in place, Pritchard pointed to “life first, community second, infrastructure – critical infrastructure, and environment.”
“So again we prioritize based on intensity, location, safety of firefighters, safety of communities, safety of individuals, but life will always prioritize. I can give you all kinds of examples where we redeployed staff this year because we have people that were either entrapped or individuals that couldn’t get out of a cabin or area. We moved resources in to get those lives out, so that is always our number one priority.”
