What Canada should learn from Australia’s devastating fires

Having spent the first two weeks of 2020 in New South Wales, Australia, I’m getting a firsthand look at the devastating fires in Australia. Well, not exactly. I’m actually 1,000 kilometres from southern New South Wales, where the fires are raging. Judging by the email I get from my friends in Canada, they think all of Australia is burning. But for the last two weeks, I’ve had clear sunny skies, with temperatures hovering around 27 degrees. As a former tourism minister for B.C., I feel sorry for my counterparts in Australia, who have the job of telling foreign visitors, “It’s OK to come here. The whole place is not burning.” But the fires—albeit concentrated south of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, and even surrounding the federal capital Canberra—are horrific. When there are images of a mountain of flames pushing an entire township onto a beach, orange skies over capitals, the military being called to help evacuate people, and charred remains of koalas and kangaroos, people take notice. Canadians see the general news. We here see the news, underscoring scenes of families huddling on beaches, cars driving through infernos, burning animals limping out of the bush in national parks, and people returning to the scorched pieces of corrugated iron that is all that is left of the family home. New South Wales’ minister of transport, Andrew Constance, whose home was devastated by the bushfires, said: “I’ve seen bushfires before, but this was like an atomic bomb. The front was so loud, and so scary.” It’s estimated that one billion animals have died by the bushfires. The tally also includes 240 million insects, 100,000 livestock, and, most importantly, 28 people. Some 2,000 homes and counting have been destroyed. Last April, former emergency chiefs wrote to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, pleading for an end to the cycle of funding cuts for fire services: “In the last year, we’ve seen unseasonal fires in Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, longer bushfire danger periods and fires burning in rainforests. Rising greenhouse gas pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas is worsening extreme weather and putting people in danger.” They were writing to a politician who once addressed the House of Representatives while holding a lump of coal, stating, "This is coal. Don't be afraid. Don't be scared. It won't hurt you.” He accused those concerned about the environmental impact of the coal industry of having "an ideological, pathological fear of coal.” But, in May, Morrison called an election, and, in an upset, went from minority to a narrow majority government. Commentators here said he won the election by turning it into a referendum on his opponent, Labour Leader Bill Shorten. Now Prime Minister Morrison is in big political trouble, much of it of his own making. He took a strangely standoff position to the early-fire season starts, saying the responsibility for firefighting belongs to the states (provinces). “I don’t hold a hose, mate.” Then, he took a Christmas trip to Hawaii, which he cut short after facing a public backlash over his absence. He seemed perplexed that people wanted the federal government to act. When he visited fire centres, he received a chilly reception, with people booing and refusing to shake his hand. For Australians, climate change has gone from the theoretical to the tangible. Seeing images of Canadian polar bears on icebergs, Pacific islands sinking, and ice flows melting is one thing; seeing your mates house burn down is another. At the recent climate summit in Madrid, Australia was singled out as one of the countries, along with the U.S. and China, working to lesson greenhouse reduction targets. As Emma Hurd, CEO of the Investor Group on Climate Change put it: “It’s simply not good enough for Australia to say we are only 1.8 per cent of global emissions and there is nothing (more) we need to do. Because we feel the effects if nothing happens. We really need to be increasing our international engagement to ensure the world is acting, because we are on the front line of the worst effects.” (Hello, Canada!) Morrison is in trouble over his handling generally of bushfires, but also his attitude to climate change. More than 20,000 people last week turned out in Sydney, chanting “He hey, ho ho, SloMo has got to go.” And “The liar from the shire, the country is on fire.” In other words, urging him to “wake up.” And, to an extent, he did. The army was sent in. A $34-million disaster recovery fund was set up. Already, there have been 28,000 claims and more to come. He just put in another $2-billion and said a balanced budget was not a priority. There has also been an outpouring of charity from here and around the world. Musicians, film stars, business, labour pitched in. Australian comedian Celeste Barber who raised over $50-million. Foundations like Leonardo DiCaprio’s have donated to help animals. There is much here for Canada to learn, whether it comes to telecommunications breakdowns, the role of the armed forces in disasters, or the efficient payment of recovery funds. Aspiring leaders of the Conservative party might want to watch what is now happening to Premier Scott Morrison. The biggest lesson may be to remember that, in a federation like Australia or Canada, working closely with the states, or in our case, provinces and territories, is probably the biggest role and challenge of the national government. After the fire season in Australia, Canada should send a federal-provincial delegation that hopefully involves ministers, which would give them a chance to see and talk to Australians firsthand. Amidst all this, Australians, generally, are among the most positive of people. A water tanker truck driver, Damian Campbell-Davys, came across a burned young koala bear he initially dubbed “Tinny Arse.” He gave it water and put it in his truck with him, and later got it to an animal shelter where it is now eating. Mr. Campbell-Davys described finding the koala as “a little ray of sunshine in this nightmare.” He has renamed the marsupial “Sunshine.” Ian Waddell is a former NDP MP and a B.C. cabinet minister. He is the president of the Former Parliamentarians Education Foundation. The Hill Times