It’s the second time this week that the Ford government has come under fire for its handling of the response to forest fires that are ravaging Northern Ontario. “The models from both climate change, but also logging, forest management, have shown that we would be in this situation. Ontario has exceeded its forest firefighting budget in four of the past five years, sometimes doubling allocated funding to pay for expenses. In 2024 and 2025, Ontario budgeted $135 million for forest firefighting while it spent $171 million and $271 million, respectively. Freedman says Ford has had every opportunity to present that idea, and improve Ontario’s position within Canada.