Ontario outdoor workers stay home, others mask up amid wildfire smoke

Playing null of undefined

Wildfire surrounds train in Northern Ontario

‘Climate change is the responsibility of everyone, including the United States’: Carney

Nearly 200 active wildfires in Ontario causing widespread devastation

Heat, fires trigger evacuations across northern Ontario

Outdoor workers are donning masks, taking breaks or staying home altogether as wildfire smoke wafts across southern Ontario and health officials raise concerns.

Environment Canada says the air quality in Toronto continues to be “very high risk,” with warnings in place from Windsor to Kingston.

Chris Smith, who runs Toronto home building company Woodsmith Construction, says he’s cancelled work on two of his company’s four projects for the day.

Smith himself says he finished his workday Wednesday with burning eyes and a “massive headache.”

However, landscaping labourer Andre Carreira says he and seven co-workers continue to plant boxwoods this afternoon, working in the shade and wearing respirator masks.

Devastating wildfires have raised health concerns and caused event cancellations across southern parts of the province as a smoky orange haze lingers in the sky for another day.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2026.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press