As many U.S. states battled poor air quality this week because of wildfires in Canada, one Republican senator wants to impose sanctions on the country.
Sen. Bernie Moreno said Friday he is proposing legislation that would hold Canada “responsible” for wildfire smoke entering the U.S. This week’s wildfires forced sporting events to be postponed and other outdoor events to be canceled or moved indoors.
The U.S. faced similar disruptions in May 2024, when massive wildfires in central Canada reduced air quality to unhealthy levels in the Midwest and Northeast.
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Moreno’s office said he would “introduce legislation to sanction Canada and Canadian officials for their failure to contain wildfires impacting air quality across Ohio and the Great Lakes region. Canada’s government failed to invest in wildfire prevention methods including forest thinning, fuel reduction, prescribed burns, and stronger enforcement against arson.”
President Donald Trump also weighed in this week.
“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Moreno’s legislation comes as four Republican members of Congress sent Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney a letter saying they are done “accepting apologies.” The letter was signed by Reps. John James, Lisa McClain, John Moolenaar and Jack Bergman.
“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,” the Republicans wrote. “That means our own agencies exploring direct involvement in cross-border fuel reduction and firefighting capacity. It means reconsidering how much benefit of the doubt this relationship continues to earn on an issue where American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year. Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country’s airspace has not been met.”
But some Canadians say Republicans are trying to score “cheap political points” by blaming the Canadian government for massive wildfires that have burned large swaths of northern Ontario, a heavily forested region with a relatively small population.
“Our No. 1 priority in Ontario is the safety of Ontarians,” Ontario Minister of Natural Resources Mike Harris told the CBC, adding that no expense will be spared in fighting wildfires in the province.
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“I believe at this moment, there are over 500 fires burning across the United States,” Harris added. “We’ve even had two fires from Minnesota cross the border into Canada and merge with fires in Ontario, so we’re all in this together and we all need to work and row in the same direction. I think a lot of these folks are misinformed.”
Harris defended Ontario’s response and noted that the province is more than twice the size of Texas.
Poor air quality is expected to continue in the Upper Midwest and Northeast on Saturday. Air quality is also expected to reach unhealthy levels in parts of the Pacific Northwest because of wildfires in central Oregon.
