After one of the worst wildfire seasons in Manitoba, CBC News has learned internal wildfire response assessments conducted by the province after the NDP government cancelled an “urgent” external review in 2023 consisted of verbal reports with no written recommendations about ways to improve.Manitoba’s wildfire service also experienced staffing shortages that made it difficult to perform a more detailed internal review, the deputy minister in charge of the service said in documents obtained through freedom of information requests.In June, CBC News reported the NDP government declined in 2023 to follow through on urgent plans outlined in provincial documents to conduct an external review of wildfire preparedness that would have examined how staff made decisions and whether they had the right information and training.The NDP government cancelled this external review in November 2023, weeks after the party took the province’s leadership from the Progressive Conservatives.Faced with questions in June about why the external review was cancelled, Manitoba’s natural resources minister and the public servant in charge of the wildfire service defended the decision.Natural Resources Minister Ian Bushie said Manitoba’s wildfire service had a “strong internal capacity” to conduct an internal review, while Kristin Hayward, the assistant deputy minister responsible for the service, said her staff was “really well-positioned to be able to do an assessment and implement any recommendations.”In documents obtained through freedom of information requests, Hayward told provincial officials via email this June these internal assessments did not result in any written reports.Hayward said they typically pick two to three fires to review to help “inform future planning” and review operating procedures.“Due to some limitations in staff capacity we have not been producing formal written reports that detail the outcome of these reviews,” she wrote to senior staff on June 18, after CBC News first inquired as to why the province did not proceed with an external review.“They are more like meeting notes and verbal discussion,” Hayward said in her email.Kristin Hayward, assistant deputy minister for the Manitoba Wildfire Service, told CBC News their assessments are often done through meetings and don’t require written recommendations. (CBC)A freedom-of-information request filed by CBC News did not yield any records related to the wildfire service conducting an internal assessment or case studies. The response to the information request, sent in September 2025, noted the term “internal assessment” was not used for any “specific assessment that was done or created” but instead was language used to describe “ongoing culture and continuous improvement done by the division.”No need to document everything: deputy ministerIn an interview, Hayward said the meetings and discussions that were held as part of their internal review allowed wildfire staff to adapt quickly to new policies. Hayward declined to state whether any recommendations were made as a result of the reviews, noting “not all of that needs to be documented.”“We don’t like to focus on writing up lengthy written reports just because our response really needs to be agile,” she said.Throughout the spring and summer of 2025, Manitoba experienced one of its worst wildfire seasons on record. Two people died and thousands were evacuated from their homes.Former Progressive Conservative natural resources minister Greg Nesbitt, who authorized the external review the NDP government cancelled, said Manitoba could have been more prepared for the 2025 wildfire season if the province had followed through with hiring the consultant.“I’m just shocked that they wouldn’t have carried through on a review,” said the Riding Mountain PC MLA, who approved the business case for the external review on Aug. 11, 2023.Nesbitt said his government determined it needed to conduct an external review following the 2023 wildfires in northern Manitoba.PC MLA Greg Nesbitt said he approved the plan when he was natural resources minister in 2023 because it was too big for the department to do internally. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)The PC MLA said he went on tours of northern Manitoba communities, including First Nations, and observed they lacked crucial equipment and training for initial attack crews.Manitoba needed the external review rather than relying on the department because the review “was too big a job to determine all the deficiencies that existed,” Nesbitt said.“I don’t think we had the capacity in the wildfire service to do a thorough review.”Review will provide ‘strategic value’: business caseThe documents obtained by CBC News reveal Hayward created the business case for the external review. It took 170 days and a complaint to Manitoba’s ombudsman before the province released a seven-page response that included this business case, which noted a forensic examination of the 2023 wildfire season was required to assess Manitoba’s preparedness for future wildfire seasons. The business case said the review would look at how decisions were made, whether proper policy was followed and whether there was appropriate training for people in key roles. It also could include studying the department’s wildfire detection systems and its initial attack preparedness. “Recommendations coming out of this analysis will provide strategic value to the department. An assessment of resource capacity and needs will help to inform staffing, operating and capital planning for the Wildfire Service,” Hayward wrote.The business case for hiring the consultant went to Jamie Moses, the newly sworn-in natural resources minister, on Nov. 17, 2023, for final approval. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)The external wildfire review was approved in August 2023. The province allocated $100,000 for the review and issued a request for proposals for prospective bidders.Hayward, along with two other civil servants recommended their preferred bidder, whose identity was blacked out in the documents obtained through freedom-of-information requests.On Nov. 17, 2023 — less than a month after the NDP was sworn in — Jamie Moses, the NDP government’s natural resources minister at the time, was asked to approve the plan, according to documents. The documents do not reveal who made the decision not to proceed with the review.The province declined CBC News requests to speak to Moses or Ian Bushie, the current natural resources minister.A request to interview Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures Minister Ian Bushie was denied. In a statement, the government said the department recommended they do an internal review instead. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)In a statement, Bushie’s spokesperson Ben Leahy said the decision to cancel the external review came from the department.“Our experts advised … that an internal review would be more useful than an external consultant who does not have the local expertise of the Wildfire Service,” he wrote in an email last week.In an interview last week, Hayward stood by the government’s decision to cancel the external review marked in 2023 as an “urgent issue” for the incoming government.She said internal reviews allow her department to use its own staff, who understand their own operations.She described her business case as presenting “one of the options” for a review. Ultimately, the department decided to leverage its “internal expertise,” she said.External consultants from other provinces often write these reports “with a number of recommendations, sometimes very lofty recommendations that aren’t necessarily applicable to the province where they’re being made,” she said.External consultant for 2025 wildfire reviewThe province’s defence of its internal wildfire service review in 2023 comes after Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced in November’s throne speech the province is undertaking an external review of the 2025 wildfires.This review will focus on Manitoba’s response to this year’s fires and will be “broader in scope than any previous review of a wildfire season,” said Leahy, the spokesperson for Bushie. Nesbitt said it’s disappointing the government is supporting this new review, but didn’t see the need for one two years ago. “Government’s come out now and they’re going to do all these reviews,” said Nesbitt. “We already had it in progress.”WATCH | No written reports came from Manitoba’s internal wildfire review:No written reports came from Manitoba’s internal wildfire reviewDocuments obtained through freedom of information requests reveal no written recommendations came from internal reviews of Manitoba’s wildfire service. The province cancelled plans for an external consultant in November 2023, weeks after the NDP took over from the Progressive Conservatives.
Manitoba wildfire review consisted of meeting notes and verbal discussion but no written reports: documents
