Canada issues air quality warnings over US wildfire smoke after Trump tariff threat

After days of acrid smoke from northern wildfires choking major US cities and inspiring Donald Trump to threaten Canada with tariffs, officials now say the reverse is also happening as parts of Canada issue air quality warnings caused by American fires to the south.

Officials in the Canadian province of British Columbia warned in an alert on Saturday evening that smoke from US fires, spurred on by thousands of lightning strikes in the north-east, was creating smoky conditions as polluted air drifted north.

“Much of this smoke is originating from fires south of the Canada-US border in Washington and Oregon,” the provincial wildfire service said.

Twenty-two large fires are burning across Washington and Oregon, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, the fire coordination agency for both states. British Columbia has air quality warnings in place for two regions, Kootenay Lake and Cranbrook, located along the south-east border with the US.

Despite the US facing its own wildfire issues, Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have chosen to accuse Canada of improper wildfire management and have threatened to hit Canadian officials with sanctions.

In a social media post on Friday, Trump wrote the US had been “invaded” by dirty air. “[The] ‌cost of this pollution must of necessity be added ⁠to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying,” he said. The Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to several climate protections.

Wildfires continue to blaze across the US and Canada. According to the Canadian government, as of Monday there were 843 active wildfires burning across Canada. Of those 181 are considered “out of control”, meaning the fires are spreading and not responding to suppressive actions. Another 532 of those fires are also considered “out of control” but suppressive actions have not yet been taken.

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, who sat alongside Trump at the World Cup final on Sunday, where the US president again suggested slapping Canada with tariffs, has sidestepped the criticisms. “Fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States,” he told reporters last week.

But Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, where many fires are burning, said on Friday: “If there’s politicians out there chirping away, well maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help, because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends.”

Eleanor Olszewski, Canada’s minister of emergency preparedness, said in a statement that Canada had invested C$12bn (£6.36bn) on fire prevention and forest sustainability over the past five years. “This is a challenge that knows no borders,” she said.