FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 30, 2026
QUEEN’S PARK. – The Auditor General of Ontario has confirmed she is already conducting a performance audit of the province’s wildland fire management — revealed in a response to Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser one day after he and four Liberal MPPs formally requested a value-for-money audit of Ontario’s emergency management, wildfire preparedness, and response.
In a letter to Fraser today, Auditor General Shelley Spence confirmed her Office currently has a Wildland Fire Management performance audit underway, slated for release in 2027, assessing the Ministry of Natural Resources’ processes under the Wildland Fire Management Act, and said she would take the concerns expressed in the letter into consideration.
The Liberals asked the Auditor General to determine whether the province was as prepared as it should have been, and whether the recommendations from the Auditor General’s 2022 report, Management of Hazards and Emergencies in the Environment, were ever implemented.
The news comes as Fraser and Ontario Liberal Critic for Indigenous Affairs Dr. Adil Shamji concluded an all-party meeting with First Nations chiefs whose communities have been directly affected by this year’s fires.
We support a public inquiry wholeheartedly — but we know the Ford government will likely refuse to call one,” said Fraser. “So, we went to the Auditor General, and today we learned she’s already looking into it. I just sat across from chiefs whose communities were evacuated, and in some cases destroyed, and the warnings and support weren’t there when they were needed. We want the Auditor General to look at whether Ontario was ready and whether constant underbudgeting impacted Ontario’s response.”
“The people most affected by this crisis are First Nations, and they’ve been telling us for years that Ontario wasn’t ready,” said Shamji. “The chiefs we met today are asking not only for accountability, but for a true partnership as well. A full audit is how we make sure this never happens to another community again.