Deaths linked to wildfire smoke in Canada have exploded by about 275 per cent since the early 2000s according to a major global report that tracks connections between health and climate change. The report, published Tuesday in The Lancet, found that an average of approximately 4,000 deaths were associated with wildfire smoke in Canada each year between 2021-25. That’s compared with an average of only 1,050 annually in 2003-12. …Ian Hamilton, the chair in planetary health at the George Institute for Global Health at Imperial College in London, co-authored the study, says the year range used for wildfire smoke-associated deaths, 2003-12, is meant to represent a historical baseline. According to the report, Canada lost approximately 5.2 million hectares of tree cover in 2024, 148 per cent more than in 2016 — and wildfires accounted for 86 per cent of the loss. …The report also says 80 per cent of Canada’s heatwave days in 2025 were directly attributable to fossil fuel-driven climate change.