‘Your Wildlife smoke is spoiling our summer’ US MPs tell Canada
12-Jul-2025.
Six members of Congress have written a letter to Canadian embassy saying smoke from Canadian wildfires has been drifting south which makes it difficult for Americans to enjoy summer.
Writing to Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, "We write to you today on behalf of our constituents who have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air to begin the summer".
The letter was signed by Tom Tiffany and Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin and Michelle Fischbach, Brad Finstad, Pete Stauber and Tom Emmer of Minnesota. Canada takes wildfire prevention "very seriously", the Canadian embassy told the BBC.
Two Canadians have died in this year's wildfires and tens of thousands of others have evacuated.
Tom Emmer is a senior member of Congress, serving as Majority Whip in the House of Representatives.
He and his five fellow Republican lawmakers wrote in the letter, published Monday: "We would like to know how your government plans on mitigating wildfire and the smoke that makes its way south."
They continued: "Our constituents have been limited in their ability to go outside and safely breathe due to the dangerous air quality the wildfire smoke has created.
"In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things."
Tarryn Elliott spokeswoman for the Canadian embassy in Washington DC said, the Canadian government "takes the prevention, response, and mitigation of wildfires very seriously".
"I can confirm that the letter has been received by the Embassy and has been shared with the relevant Canadian agencies," she said. "We will respond in due course."
According to the Canadian government, Canada faces wildfires every summer. The worst year on record was 2023, when the fires killed eight people and torched an area larger in size than England.
According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, there have been 2,672 fires so far this year.
According to scientists, the country is warming at a rate twice that of the global average due to its large land mass, and its Arctic region is warming three times as fast.
