Northwoods’ congressman blames Canada for poor air quality across Wisconsin

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(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s northernmost congressman is fed up with smoke and haze from Canada.

Congressman Tom Tiffany was on social media recently, complaining about another air quality alert for much of northern Wisconsin.

“Another weekend of Canadian wildfire smoke and air quality warnings across WI, MN. With today’s modern tools to prevent wildfires, this shouldn’t keep happening,” Tiffany posted. “Canada owes us answers for its forest management failures.”

Canada’s wildfires have been burning, in one place or another, since May. Those fires have caused air quality alerts from Montana to New York state. Wisconsin saw at least two air quality alerts this week.

Tiffany has been pushing for Canada to do more to control its fire for a while, including last week when he and a number of members of Congress write a letter to Canada’s ambassador, asking for better forest management.

“In 2023, Canada had its worst year for wildfires on record, last year’s fire season was considered one of the worst, and this year seems to be a continuation of these previous years,” Tiffany and the others wrote. “In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things.”

Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman also signed on to Tiffany’s letter.

As did Brad Finstad (MN-01), Tom Emmer (MN-06), Michelle Fischbach (MN-07), and Pete Stauber (MN-08).

The New York Times on Monday reported that Canada’s wildfire smoke continues to make the air quality in Canada even worse.

Both Montreal and Toronto are among the 10-worst cities for air quality, according to IQair.