Members of Parliament, along with forestry industry experts and Indigenous land stewards, criticized both current and past governments for failing to take adequate measures to prevent the wildfires that devastated 30 percent of the Jasper townsite in late July.
During a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday, witnesses expressed outrage over the lack of incorporation of Indigenous stewardship practices in wildfire management.
Meetings that began in late September aim to investigate the factors behind the Jasper wildfire this summer, which forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists and resulted in the burning of over 32,500 hectares of land.
Dane de Souza, a Métis Nation wildfire researcher and firefighter, noted, “The intensity and frequency of fires like these are worsened by climate change. However, their root cause is directly linked to the colonial suppression of Indigenous fire stewardship and the use of fire on the land.”
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