Feds lease 10 new firefighting aircraft as wildfire season gets underway.
Mon, May 25, 2026, at 8:32 a.m. PDT
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A water bomber assists crews on the ground at the Paddy’s Pond wildfire just outside St. John’s on Aug. 14. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press – image credit)
Firefighting agencies across Canada have 10 new aircraft they can use as the 2026 wildfire season gets underway.
Eleanor Olszewski, the federal minister of emergency management, announced in Ottawa on Monday that provincial and territorial wildfire agencies can now request the aircraft through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).
“These additional aircraft will strengthen Canada’s wildfire response, protect front-line personnel and protect communities across the country,” she said.
The 10 aircraft include four firefighting air tankers, one birddog plane and five heavy lift helicopters, along with two “support assets.”
The aircraft will be pre-positioned across the country based on where expected need will arise, the government said.
Olszewski said the federal government decided to lease the aircraft rather than buy them because doing so meant getting the helicopters and planes into service now rather than waiting three to five years for delivery.
“In terms of timing, which is the most fundamentally important thing, we wanted to make sure that we had aerial firefighting assets in place for this wildfire season,” she said.
She also said that the leased aircraft come with pilots and a maintenance program already established.
In the 2025 budget, the federal government announced $316 million in funding over five years to create a national aerial firefighting surge capacity.
CIFFC used money from that funding envelope to lease the 10 new aircraft and two undefined support assets through contracts with Conair Group Inc., Coldstream Helicopters and VIH Helicopters.
CIFFC acts as a hub that co-ordinates the sharing of wildfire resources like personnel, equipment, aircraft, information and expertise across the country’s federal, provincial and territorial governments.
New temporary assets
CIFFC will be getting four Dash 8-400 AT airtankers with 10,000-litre tanks that can hold water or foam/gel retardant.
It will also be getting three Airbus AS332 L and L1 helicopters that have 4,000-litre drop buckets and a cruising speed of 270 km/h.
Both the Airbus helicopters and the airtankers are being leased from May 1 until Sept. 27.
CIFFC will also be leasing two Sikorsky S-92A helicopters with tanks that can hold up to 5,000 litres of water or fire retardant.
The Sikorsky helicopters are on lease from May 22 until Oct. 18.
The two support assets are mobile forward-attack tanker bases. These bases can be set up quickly at airports near wildfires to allow for the rapid refuelling, loading and dispatching of aerial support aircraft.
NDP MP Gord Johns, who represents the B.C. riding of Courtenay-Alberni and has long advocated for the federal government to establish an aerial firefighting fleet, welcomed the news.
“With another dangerous wildfire season already underway, leasing aircraft is an important step, but Canada also needs a long-term strategy that builds permanent domestic capacity,” Johns said in a statement.
