As Ontario faces one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, Premier Doug Ford says he has ordered six new waterbombers, but internal documents obtained by the Star show no sign of the purchase in the budget.
And because of a lengthy backlog of orders at the only plant that makes wildfire-fighting planes, even if the province earmarked their price tag of more than half a billion dollars now, they would not be delivered for almost a decade.
The new waterbombers are conspicuously absent from a March 2025 budget document, obtained by the Star, that details the financial outlook of Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) for the next two years.
The 16-page slide deck, marked confidential, breaks down more than $2.4 billion in spending on ministry operations and capital expenses. It shows $92.7 million has been budgeted for “capital assets†in 2025-2026, a category that explicitly includes the purchase of aircraft, though none of this is earmarked for new waterbombers.
The confidential budget presentation lists “key ministry procurements,†including dam rehabilitation, a new forest fire base in Kenora and long-term helicopter service contracts for the Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services branch — but no waterbombers.
There’s no mention of money for new waterbombers in the May’s provincial budget either.
“Where’s the evidence that they’ve actually been ordered, purchased or even budgeted for?†said Lise Vaugeois, the NDP MPP for Thunder Bay–Superior North. “The North is burning now, three communities have been evacuated, and they’re just wasting time.â€Â
“It’s a funny way to put it, but we’ve got to light a fire under this government to get them to move on this,†she added.
Ford’s office declined an interview request. The Ministry of Natural Resources referred the Star to its previous statements, which did not directly address the waterbomber purchase.
“Ontario remains an internationally recognized leader in wildfire fire management,†states an email from Natural Resources Minister Mike Harris Jr.’s office sent June 23. “Every fire season, Ontario works with provincial, federal, and international partners to ensure the necessary resources are deployed to keep communities in our province, and across North America, safe. These mutual aid partnership agreements enable the sharing of an additional 320 personnel, equipment, and aircraft between agencies.â€
This spring, the province has already called upon other jurisdictions for assistance, receiving two waterbombers from Quebec. These have helped fill the hole left by three of Ontario’s waterbombers, which have been grounded due to a lack of pilots, according to OPSEU, the public sector union that represents Fire Rangers and pilots.Â
“We’ve got this commitment where they say, ‘We’re buying six more water bombers.’ OK, but we don’t even have enough pilots to fly the ones we have,†said JP Hornick, president of OPSEU.
“Announcements about stuff, about infrastructure projects, about new water bombers — they’re really splashy, but they don’t address the problem that is the crisis underneath it, which is how are you bringing in the people to do the work to actually fly the bombers?â€
Last month, the Star published The Coming Firestorm, a three-part series that outlined a severe staffing shortage on the front lines of defence against forest fires. At a time when climate change is creating more and bigger wildfires, Ontario has 100 fewer fire rangers than it did a decade ago.
This year, more than 375,000 hectares of forest have already burned in Ontario, making this season one of the five worst in the last 30 years — and there are three months of fires left to go.
Now, as the Red Lake 12 fire northwest of Thunder Bay continues to grow — and could soon become the biggest forest fire in Ontario’s history — the effects of the waterbomber shortage are also becoming clear.
- Marco Chown Oved
Because the waterbombers operate in pairs, there are only three “tanker packages†available for the entire province, said Noah Freedman, a wildland firefighter crew leader, and vice-president of OPSEU Local 703. With 37 fires currently burning and as many as a dozen new ones breaking out every day, the bombers can only attack a small fraction of the fires.
“Successful containment of wildfire starts when they’re small. Waterbombers come in when we’re getting our pumps set up and they smash the fire down to something more manageable that we can contain quickly,†Freedman said. “This season, more often than not, if there’s a lot of fires, they’ll just go: ‘Sorry, we’re not sending air attack.’â€
The waterbomber purchase was announced during the last election campaign in February and under the headline “Only Doug Ford and the Ontario PCs will protect northern Ontario.†Ford’s re-election campaign promised $530 million for the purchase of six new waterbombers, expanding the province’s fleet of “super scoopers†from nine to 15.
That half a billion dollars is not listed in the leaked budget document. A section that outlines “Key 2025-26 Capital Projects†lists 13 much smaller expenditures for forest fire fighting, including $10.8 million for an “Avionics Upgrade to CL-415 Waterbombers,†$3.2 million for “Twin Otter Engine Overhauls†and $8.6 million for the “Construction (of a) Forward Attack Base in Socket Lake.â€
Last month, Ford said the order had been placed.
“We ordered another six more water bombers … the problem is right now they’re backlogged,” he said, according to a . “They produce them in Alberta, God bless them. But it’s taking four years to produce more water bombers.”
The new waterbombers aren’t even being made yet, said John Gradek, a professor of aviation and supply chain management at McGill University. The manufacturer, De Havilland Canada, is still building a factory outside Calgary, where the first CL-515 waterbombers aren’t scheduled to roll off the line until late 2027 or early 2028.
De Havilland did not respond to a request for comment.Â
Gradek said the factory will be able to make 10 waterbombers a year and there are already 22 planes on order from European countries, which would delay delivery to Ontario until the early to mid 2030s, even if the order were placed today.
The first CL-515 prototype won’t even be ready until this fall or next spring, Gradek said.
“There is no price tag yet for these airplanes,†he added. “What you’re buying is a waterbomber on spec.â€
Told that no money had been budgeted for the waterbomber purchase, Gradek said: “I’m surprised.â€
Even if a final price has not yet been determined, there should be a deposit noted and some sort of earmark for the balance due.Â
“There should be a statement by the Ontario government and an agreement with De Havilland to keep six slots on the production line for Ontario waterbombers,†he said. “There has to be a public statement and public accounting for the capital associated with the purchase of these airplanes.â€
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