Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Reps. Jack Bergman, John James, Lisa McClain, and John Moolenaar are demanding immediate action from the Canadian government as another wildfire season brings dangerous smoke across the border and into Michigan communities, according to a release from James' office.

After repeated conversations sharing concerns, and a lack of meaningful progress, the members are making it clear that continued inaction from Canada is unacceptable. The members say Canadian leaders have had years to address the underlying causes of worsening wildfires, yet American families continue to bear the consequences.

In a joint letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Michigan Republicans warned that patience has run out and called on Canada to move beyond promises and take real action to protect communities on both sides of the border.

In their letter, the members argued that, "We write today as members of Michigan's congressional delegation to raise our voices on an issue that has already drawn letters from our colleagues in past years: wildfire smoke drifting across the border from Canada into our communities. Additionally, last year, Reps. James and Bergman each wrote letters to your government to raise the alarm about wildfire smoke pouring across our border from Canada into our communities. We write jointly this time because a year has passed, the season has come around again, and nothing has changed except that our patience has run out."

The letter to Carney continued, "We were told last year that this would be treated with urgency. It was not. We were told the causes, chronic under-investment in forest thinning, fuel reduction, and prescribed burns, along with inadequate enforcement against arson, were being addressed. They were not, or not adequately enough to matter to the people we represent. Provincial leaders have offered excuses instead of results, and in some cases have openly dismissed the health of American citizens as an inconvenience to their own summer. That attitude is unacceptable from a neighbor and an ally."

"We are done accepting apologies in place of action. If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people. That means our own agencies exploring direct involvement in cross-border fuel reduction and firefighting capacity. It means reconsidering how much benefit of the doubt this relationship continues to earn on an issue where American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year. Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country's airspace has not been met."

Read the full letter attached below.