While Alberta deals with a higher than normal wildfire season, RCMP have stated they’re investigating a series of fires near Strathcona as suspected cases of arson.

The Edmonton Journal reports that last Saturday, Emergency Services managed to put out a fire in some trees near St. Nicholas Catholic School in Sherwood Park. 

The next day, Emergency Services got a call about a dumpster fire outside a mall on Brentwood Boulevard and Sherwood Drive.

Subsequently, last Monday, three fires were found set outside another mall near Wye Road, which Emergency Services again managed to extinguish with limited damage.

The higher than usual wildfire season has led to Premier Danielle Smith saying that she plans to hire out-of-province investigators to look into other potential cases of arson.

“I think you’re watching as I am, the number of stories about arson,” Smith said, as reported by True North.

“I’m very concerned that there are arsonists, and there have been stories as well that we’re investigating, and we’re bringing in arson investigators from outside the province.”

Smith added, “We have almost 175 fires with no known cause at the moment.”

As of Monday June 12, there are 77 active wildfires in Alberta. 

Since January 1,  the vast majority of the province’s wildfires in 2023 have started due to humans (accidentally or intentionally), as per official government data. 

Alberta has had 633 wildfires in 2023, which is already 204 more fires than what the province experienced all of last year.

Last week, Quebec RCMP indicated they were investigating some wildfires as suspected arson cases. 

While many NDP and Liberal MPs and even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau politicize the current wildfire situation to push for higher carbon taxes, data from the Canadian National Fire Database show that over the past 40 years, wildfires in Canada have slightly decreased.

Last week, Trudeau’s former advisor and long time pal Gerald Butts blamed human-started forest fires on climate change.