The Bay d'Espoir Highway in central Newfoundland is closed due to smoke from forest fires in the area. Image: Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture/Twitter

The year is just over half-way through, but already it’s the worst in terms of forest fire activity in Canada.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says the numbers are sobering.

“As of today, there are currently 492 wildfires burning across Canada and 258 of those fires are deemed out of control,”  Blair said at the unveiling of Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy and the revised Climate Action Plan.

Blair says the wild fires have cause a lot of damage in our forests.

“There have been approximately 7.7 million hectares of forest burned so far this year, and unfortunately that makes 2023 Canada’s worst wildfire season on record.”

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says in addition to supporting efforts to make communities more fire safe, the federal government is making $164 million dollars available through the National Adaptation Strategy for things like flood mapping.