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Canada's Wildfire Bill Arrived. It's $500 Million, and Climbing, and Canada Extended the Gaza Safe-Passage Window to March 2028.
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Canada's Wildfire Bill Arrived. It's $500 Million, and Climbing.
Last spring in Manitoba, fires blazed over 2.3 million hectares, forced more than 33,000 people out of their homes, and killed two people. The province has now totaled the cost, and it ain’t pretty.
An analysis by The Narwhal and the Winnipeg Free Press found at least $500 million in expenses directly tied to the fires including evacuations, emergency response, damaged infrastructure, shuttered businesses, and torched homes. The Manitoba government spent $375 million on emergency wildfire spending alone - seven times what it had budgeted, and more than the combined operating budgets of its entire Environment and Natural Resources departments.
The government's 2026 budget risk outlook advises that if similar conditions persist, the province is aLao going to suffer additional risks to employment, tourism, agriculture, and the overall economy. Manitoba's emergency contingency budget for this year remains unchanged at $50 million.
For anyone that still holds property back in Canada, the tab is already showing up in other forms. Globe and Mail data published today show home insurance quotes are up more than a fifth in parts of Ontario since 2024 - some cities up 26 per cent - as insurers reprice flood and wildfire risk across the country.
Read more: The Narwhal / The Globe and Mail
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Canada Extended the Gaza Safe-Passage Window to 2028
IRCC signed an extension on April 20 that took effect today, giving Palestinian nationals who hold an approved Canadian visitor visa under the Gaza emergency measures until March 31, 2028, to make the trip.
The policy - first introduced in December 2023 - waives two standard entry requirements for eligible TRV holders: they no longer have to prove they'll leave Canada at the end of their stay, and they don't have to meet the usual financial sufficiency test at the border. Every other admissibility requirement remains in effect.
The application window has been closed for some time. Parts 1 and 2 of the policy capped at 5,000 applications and have since expired. This extension only covers Part 3, which is the right to arrive in Canada once approved. The previous entry window ran out yesterday (April 23). The new one is going to run nearly two years longer than the last.
Ottawa choosing to open the window for that long is an indication about how much longer it expects the path home to Gaza to stay shut. Approved applicants who haven't been able to travel yet now have until early 2028.
Read more: CIC News