Would you fight Alberta's wildfires for $22/hour? And no benefits?

It was early August 2022, when Michelle Wigmore was on her way back from leading a crew of wildland firefighters near Grande Prairie, Alta. They stopped for a coffee in Fox Creek, about 230 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

"There was a 'help wanted' sign up and the wage that they were offering at the Tim Hortons was higher than all our crew members," said Wigmore in an interview with CBC's What On Earth.

While they made a joke of it at the time, Wigmore — who has about three decades of experience fighting wildfires in Ontario and Alberta — says it felt unfair when she considered the amount of training and work involved in the job. 

Low wages are one of the reasons Wigmore and others say wildland firefighters in Alberta are not returning to the seasonal jobs, resulting in a dwindling number of experienced firefighters and creating potential safety risks to personnel and the public. 

Other reasons include "lack of benefits [and] lack of potential opportunity in the organization," said a former wildland firefighter, whom CBC News has agreed to call by one of his initials, D, because of concerns speaking out could harm his livelihood. 

D worked as a seasonal wildland firefighter — part of what were long called "Type 1" crews — for the province of Alberta for several years, including 2023. 

"When I first started… some districts had very high retention and some had good retention. But in the last 10 years, things have gotten significantly worse and we're essentially seeing people come to Alberta, get their training, work one, two, three seasons and then move on to, typically, Parks Canada or B.C. Wildfire [Service]," he said. 

He says, early in his career, there would have been about two or three new members on a crew of 20. Last year, which saw a record-breaking area of land burned in Alberta, D says about half of them overall were new to wildland firefighting. 

This year's wildfire season is already well underway, with several fires ongoing in Alberta, and some evacuation orders issued. 

It has been "one of the best recruitment years ever," for seasonal wildfire fighters, according to Todd Loewen, Alberta's minister of forestry and parks, though he said this assessment is based on the number of people who responded to the first round of advertising for those positions. 

Loewen told CBC News he thinks there were 1,000 such applicants. It was not immediately clear how many had been hired as seasonal crew by the province.

A spokesperson for the ministry said in a statement 2023's return rate among wildfire fighters was 57 per cent — roughly in line with what D says he saw on the ground. 

But the Alberta Union of Public Employees (AUPE), which represents the seasonal firefighters, says last year's retention rate was lower — stating in an open letter and petition that less than half of them are coming back, year over year.

It's "hard for Alberta to bring people back" when workers could earn more working for B.C. or Parks Canada, AUPE president James Gault told CBC News.