Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe acknowledged the province’s shortcomings in managing the 2025 wildfire season, as outlined in a recently released report, saying the lessons learned will inform future wildfire management.
Last year, a report released Friday by accounting firm MNP revealed, the province was unprepared for the fire-packed season it experienced — one that saw 2.9 million hectares of its land burned. The report said the prevention methods used by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) were dated and not based on fire science.
“The 2025 wildfire season placed Saskatchewan’s wildfire and emergency management system under significant strain due to extreme, but reasonably foreseeable, conditions after consecutive (years) of extreme wildfire seasons in Canada,” it reads.
Last year’s record-breaking wildfire season in Saskatchewan was described as “the most significant fire season” in history by Moe, who spoke with reporters for the first time since the report’s release on Monday while in Paris, France, on a European trade trip.
“When we received the review, there’s a process the government went through to ensure that we had an adequate response to that review. And a response that, I think, would provide some level of confidence in people that live in communities across this province,” Moe said.
This year, the premier said he hopes fire-prone Saskatchewan communities can rest assured knowing “the government is taking action to ensure that our SPSA is always delivering a higher level of service.”
While reacting to the report’s release last week, Dustin Trumbley, who lives in Denare Beach, Sask., called for the resignation of the SPSA’s president Marlo Pritchard and vice-president of operations, Steve Roberts.
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“Marlo (Pritchard) and Steve (Roberts), you know you did wrong. There will be no apology – there never has been an apology on their behalf. The people in the north deserve better, clearly,” he said.
“Maybe it’s time for some of these guys to go to different positions where they’re capable of doing their jobs, in my opinion, because I don’t think they are very good at doing their jobs.”
During last year’s blaze in Denare Beach, Trumbley said he and his fiancé “lost literally everything,” including their home, side-by-side, and custom wedding decor, as well as other belongings.
In response, the premier said the decision isn’t his to make.
“Any changes with respect to staffing within the SPSA, which is an agency, that wouldn’t necessarily be changes that would be made by elected members of government,” Moe said.
He denied commenting on whether he agrees with Trumbley’s call for the resignations.
“Largely what I saw come out of the MNP report was a number of recommendations saying that we need to do better (at the) Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, and we need to do better as a government supporting the work that they do,” he continued.
Moe and the minister responsible for the SPSA, Michael Weger, both said the province is working to implement the report’s 11 recommendations.
Both said its findings will help keep Saskatchewanians, their homes, and their communities safe. The premier also said he is interested in working with northern, fire-prone communities and First Nations in Saskatchewan to train volunteer firefighters and communities to be Firesmart through the Canada-wide program.
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