Saskatchewan had ‘significant gaps’ in 2025 wildfire preparation, response: report

The Saskatchewan government’s response to last year’s intense wildfire-packed summer was severely lacking and exposed weaknesses in its preparedness measures and emergency organizations, according to an independent report.

Eleven recommendations were put forth in the long-awaited review from accounting firm MNP, which was originally due in February. It found the province had “significant gaps” in several key areas of wildfire management, including prevention, mitigation and emergency preparedness.

“After reading this 107-page review, it is clear the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency must do better,” said Minister Responsible for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) Michael Weger at a news conference on Friday.

The 2025 Saskatchewan wildfire season was the second worst on record, with 2.9 million hectares burned by more than 500 wildfires that forced 10,000 people to be evacuated. In Denare Beach, near the Manitoba boundary in northeast Saskatchewan, about 400 homes — half the village — were destroyed.

Weger said the province will be investing in implementing the recommendations but could not provide an estimate of how much it’s expected to cost.

Part of that spending will include hiring new full-time staff to do mitigation work in the winter and firefighting in the summer.

“Many of these immediate actions are born directly from my conversations with residents and business owners from communities that were affected by the wildfires,” the minister said.

One of the issues identified in the report was the four-person fire mitigation team, which was fully staffed by provincial standards, but the report found that the small team needed additional members or a reduced workload.

Weger said staffing decisions will be made later, but he expects to add some new full-time workers to the SPSA.

The report also says the agency “was not fully prepared for a wildfire season of the scale and complexity seen in 2025.”

“The establishment of the SPSA as a joint emergency management and wildfire operations agency does not appear to have been supported by an effective rollout or implementation framework,” it reads.

Marlo Pritchard, the president of the SPSA, told reporters Friday he takes full responsibility for issues outlined in the report.

“I have committed to my board and to my minister that we can do better. We now have a road map to follow,” he said.

The wildfire response itself was also found by MNP to be lacking.

Coordination between government agencies, first responders, and other stakeholders is supposed to be done through the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre but was not, the report found. As a result, the hub was active, “but not operated as a fully functional coordination centre,” it stated.

It identified the major roadblock for the operations team as the SPSA-run response centre. The two centres were being confused with one another, and the report found it was unclear what specific tasks each party was responsible for.

“Staff reported that internal policies were outdated, hard to find, or not followed, contributing to operational confusion and inconsistent decision-making,” according to the report.

Sending out alerts and evacuation orders was found to be delayed and inconsistent.

This made it difficult for evacuees to know if, or when, to leave their home. It also challenged communities welcoming evacuees. Often those communities were “underprepared and forced into reactive decision-making,” the report found.

Saskatchewan’s 2025 fire evacuation process, once the order was in effect, was also insufficient – partly due to antiquated paper forms. The report says there was a backlog in handling the registration paperwork and, in some cases, duplicates were submitted.

Typically, local authorities order and manage evacuations, but if the situation becomes dire, the province steps in as seen in May of 2025. After the province took the ropes, the report said it became unclear who was in charge for those responding to, and dealing with, the wildfires.

Hugh Gordan, the NDP’s shadow minister for community safety, called it “a damning report.”

“The Coles Notes version of the executive summary doesn’t have a lot of nice things to say about how this government planned, prepared, and executed its strategy to fight the wildfires in the north,” said Gordan.

Moving forward, Gordon said the NDP will follow up to ensure the recommendations are met.

Looking to this year, the province’s wildfire season has already begun – with evacuations being ordered in late May for some communities.

–with files from The Canadian Press

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