NRCan workforce cuts raise questions about Canada’s future wildfire-mapping capacity, union says: ‘climate resilience is not built at an emergency press conference when the fires are out there’
At least 17 federal employees whose remote-sensing work supports satellite mapping of wildfires have been notified that their positions may be eliminated through workforce adjustment at Natural Resources Canada, according to their union, raising questions about the scientific capacity Ottawa will retain for future fire seasons.
The staff are among 25 workers at the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation affected by the workforce-adjustment process, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) said. The centre uses satellite data to produce maps and information for tracking wildfires, floods, and other hazards as fires continue to burn across northwestern Ontario.
Under federal workforce-adjustment rules, affected employees may ultimately be retained or offered another position, leave with financial support, or be laid off.
The impacted positions extend beyond remote sensing. Twenty-two of PIPSC’s 50 members in the Canadian Forest Service’s Natural Climate Solutions Division are affected, according to the union. Nine of 27 positions in the Geological Survey of Canada’s Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Division are also affected.
PIPSC says an additional 14 Geological Survey positions are being eliminated in fields including natural hazards research, emergency preparedness, and climate resilience.
More than 200 PIPSC members are affected at each of NRCan, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, PIPSC vice-president Stéphanie Fréchette said. Across government, the union says more than 6,500 members have been impacted.
PIPSC says the affected teams contribute to different aspects of climate resilience, emergency preparedness, and natural-hazard research. The remote-sensing group uses satellite observations to monitor wildfires, floods, and landslides, producing maps and geographic information for emergency managers. The Natural Climate Solutions Division works on programs involving forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems that store carbon and contribute to longer-term climate resilience.
The Geological Survey's impacted work includes studying climate impacts and researching natural hazards. PIPSC says the 14 positions being eliminated include specialists in landslides and tsunamis, emergency preparedness, and tools used to assess community vulnerability. The union's concern is, therefore, not limited to one wildfire program, but extends across systems used to identify hazards, assess how they may unfold and prepare communities before emergencies.
PIPSC considers its figures minimum estimates since the estimates exclude staff represented by other unions and those who are unrepresented.
'You cannot fund the ambulance while cutting the smoke detector': PIPSC's Fréchette
PIPSC did not identify a specific effect from the workforce reductions on the current fire season. The union is not arguing its members could have prevented this year's fires in northwestern Ontario, Fréchette said. Its concern is longer-term: whether Ottawa will retain enough specialists to maintain and improve the scientific tools and data that fire agencies depend on as wildfire seasons grow longer and more severe.
"Climate resilience is not built at an emergency press conference when the fires are out there," Fréchette said. "It is built by scientists and professionals working before the disaster strikes."
Fréchette said aircraft and firefighters remain essential, but cannot replace the mapping, forecasting, and risk assessments used to decide where and how they are deployed.
"You cannot fund the ambulance while cutting the smoke detector," she said.
The Government of Canada Adaptation Action Plan describes fire modelling, mapping, and monitoring—along with fire behaviour, risk and growth assessments—as “essential services” that help fire managers decide how to respond and allocate firefighting resources
The plan identifies Emergency Geomatics Services as supporting national emergency response, while WildFireSat is intended to monitor active wildfires from space. In an email, The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) said the contract with the WildFireSat supplier had been terminated because the existing mission requirements no longer met the government’s needs.
The agency said it is consulting Canadian industry and other stakeholders on a path forward and continues to target 2029 for delivering wildfire-monitoring capability from space. Because WildFireSat had not launched, the contract termination has had no effect on monitoring during the current wildfire season, the agency said
Fréchette said the government's own warnings about worsening climate disasters make the reductions harder to square.
"If the threat is growing, Canada's preparedness should be growing too," she said.
Federal role, provincial jurisdiction
Provinces and territories are generally responsible for fighting wildfires. The federal government supports them by supplying scientific information and specialized capabilities that individual fire agencies may not possess, said Eric Kennedy, an associate professor of disaster and emergency management at York University.
The Canadian Forest Service maintains forest maps and inventories, studies how fires behave in different landscapes, and develops computer models used to forecast how fires could spread. Federal specialists can also help provincial and territorial agencies run fire simulations when their own capacity is stretched, Kennedy said.
Much of that work happens outside public view. Forest maps must be checked against changing conditions on the ground, while models and software require continual updates, maintenance, and security.
"You can't just build a piece of software and then it will fix all your problems," Kennedy said.
That year-round capacity becomes more important as longer fire seasons pull provincial and territorial researchers into operational duties, leaving them with less time to conduct research or update scientific tools, he said.
Kennedy cautioned that he could not determine whether workforce reductions had already affected federal wildfire operations or predict when any effects might emerge.
Government Operations Centre is fully operational
While PIPSC's concerns focus on longer-term scientific capacity, Public Safety Canada (PSC) said another part of the federal emergency-response system remains fully operational during the current wildfire season.
The Government Operations Centre (GOC) provides situational awareness during emergencies and co-ordinates the federal response, according to Public Safety Canada. Department spokesperson Louis-Carl Brissette Lesage said in an email that the centre has an active workforce of more than 100 employees.
"The GOC has maintained its full capability to respond to all operational requirements, including those related to the current wildfire season," he said.
PSAC spokesperson Harun Jasarevic said in an email that 60 GOC employees, approximately half the centre’s workforce, received affected letters in January. He said union members working at the centre reported that most had since left, although PSAC did not provide the exact number.
"These cuts are going to affect how the federal government reacts to public safety emergencies in Canada, that cannot be disputed. The Canadian public should be as concerned as we are," said Jasarevic.
Brissette Lesage said the department can also bring cross-trained personnel into the centre from elsewhere in government if additional capacity is needed.
PSC is also implementing reductions under the government's Comprehensive Expenditure Review, Brissette Lesage said, relying as much as possible on attrition, voluntary departures, and the Early Retirement Incentive program.
"The GOC has maintained full operations throughout these changes," he said.
The department did not provide the requested comparison with July 2025 staffing levels, or disclose how many GOC employees had received workforce-adjustment notices.
Last December, Canada's National Observer reported that NRCan said there were no immediate layoffs and no increased security or safety risks to the environment or the public. The department said its about 5,400 staff would continue fulfilling its mandate.
The Hill Times asked NRCan whether the 17 remote-sensing employees remain in their positions, whether any mapping or research products have been reduced or delayed, and whether the reductions have created any additional risk to wildfire preparedness. NRCan did not respond by deadline.
Editor's note: This article was updated on July 23, 2026, at 1:40 p.m. to include additional comments from PSAC and the Canadian Space Agency.
The Hill Times