Senator Bernie Moreno introduced legislation that would sanction Canadian officials, revoke visas and consider new tariffs over wildfire smoke

By Sabrina Eaton
cleveland.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno on Friday released text of legislation that would sanction Canadian government officials, block their assets and revoke their visas over wildfire smoke that has repeatedly fouled the air in Ohio and across the United States.

Moreno joins other Republican members of Congress who have blamed the wildfires on Canada’s supposed inaction, despite the fact that climate experts say they are the result of climate change.

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The Westlake Republican’s bill, formally titled the “Countering Atmospheric Nuisances Arising from Drifting Airborne Foreign Incendiary Residual Emissions Act” or the CANADA FIRE Act, is scheduled for introduction in the Senate on July 20.

“Thanks to Canada’s failed leadership, Ohio’s skies are seeing the worst pollution on record and Ohioans across the state are being subjected to hazardous conditions – we will not tolerate this incompetence,” said a statement from Moreno. “My bill will declare an emergency, sanction all Canadian officials responsible, and study a victims compensation fund driven by imposing additional tariffs.”

The bill would require the president to determine within 30 days of enactment whether wildfire smoke from Canada harmed U.S. air quality over the preceding year and whether Canadian officials failed to respond adequately.

An affirmative finding would trigger mandatory sanctions, including a ban on U.S. government contracts with Canada and Export-Import Bank assistance. The president could also impose import restrictions and limits on new investment in Canadian state-owned entities.

Officials found responsible, including current or former Cabinet members and senior officials overseeing forestry, land management or emergency response, would have their U.S. visas revoked and be barred from entry. The bill also expresses a sense of Congress that the Secretary of State should consider declaring more than a dozen categories of Canadian diplomats “persona non grata,” including the ambassador and consuls general in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and New York, until the president certifies that air quality in affected U.S. communities has stayed below an AQI of 100 for 90 straight days.

Cleveland.com has reached out to the Canadian Embassy in Washington for comment on the legislation.

The bill arrives as scientists attribute the intensity of this year’s fires largely to climate change rather than Canadian government failure. Rebecca Saari, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Waterloo, said the hot, dry conditions fueling the fires in northwest Ontario are linked to a broader trend.

“We know that climate change has increased wildfire activity in the U.S. and Canada,” Saari told cleveland.com. A 2024 study she cited found climate change set the stage for the extreme fire conditions in Quebec in 2023.

Canadian wildfire researchers reject the idea that better government management could have prevented this year’s fires.

Jen Beverly, a wildland fire professor at the University of Alberta, told the BBC that Canada’s boreal forests produce fires that are especially hard to control and that “we’re seeing more of those because of climate change.”

Mike Flannigan, a fire science expert at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, put it more bluntly in comments to the media network: until governments address the root cause, the smoke will keep coming.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to criticism from U.S. lawmakers who accused Canada of failing to prevent the wildfire disaster by calling for a change in the U.S. approach to climate change.

At a Thursday press conference in Canada, Carney said his country is investing in clean energy, while the United States has obstructed it, particularly wind energy.

“Climate change is the responsibility of everyone, truly everyone, including the United States,” said Carney.

Canada has repeatedly absorbed smoke from U.S. fires as well, including a 2020 stretch when blazes in California, Oregon and Washington state sent smoke north across the border for weeks. A Canadian helicopter pilot died this week while helping fight a wildfire in Colorado.

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