By Liam DeBoer | BlendrNews.com

Nova Scotia’s government says wildfires are such a serious threat that they’ve taken the extreme measure of imposing climate lockdowns. They’ve banned hiking, camping, fishing, and, in some cases, even walking on your own private land with friends. All in the name of public safety, of course.

But when you look at the budget, it’s hard not to see the hypocrisy. For the 2025-2026 year, the province has allocated just 1.1 million dollars for direct wildfire suppression. That’s equipment and training in partnership with Natural Resources Canada. At the same time, they’ve poured 37 times more, over 40 million dollars, into broad climate change and net-zero initiatives.

Things like net-zero housing projects, community solar programs, and advancing clean technologies, whatever that means. These projects do nothing to get more firefighters in the field or more water on flames.

And it doesn’t stop there. The same budget hands out 1.3 million dollars for a Mi’kmaq language revitalization strategy, and 39 million dollars to support the film industry, including 14 million dollars to complete a Hulu TV series called Washington Black. To put that into perspective, the TV show alone costs over 12 times more than the wildfire suppression budget. The full film industry allocation is more than 35 times greater!

So we have a government that claims the fire risk is so severe it must override basic property rights and personal freedoms, yet when it comes to funding the very resources that could stop these fires, they choose vanity projects, cultural initiatives, and DEI entertainment instead.

If they truly believed wildfires were the existential threat they say they are, the budget would show it. Instead, it shows a political class more interested in symbolic climate branding and media productions than in protecting lives and property.

The next time Nova Scotians are told there’s no money for more crews, more trucks, or better equipment, remember, it’s not that the money doesn’t exist. It’s that your safety simply isn’t the actual priority.

Originally published on Instagram @liam.out.loud