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My company deals with several of the sawmills that have been directly affected by these fires in north central Quebec and Alberta.
The main reason is the dryer than normal spring and winter.
Then about three weeks ago they got thunder storms with very little rain.

It is NOT unusual for forest fires in the Pacific northwest US and western Canada in August & September. That is because they have hot dry summers. This is much earlier than normal.
The weather in Ontario and Quebec is more like the northeastern US. Snow in the winter. A lot of rain in the spring. Humid summers. Cool rainy fall.

Last winter eastern Canada and New England did not get much snow. Then in April/May we did not get the rain we normally get. FYI, we are making up for it now in June here in NH. 4” of rain since Monday. However, that rain did not hit northern Quebec, but it did hit southern Quebec.

Twice the town of Chibougamau, QB had to be evacuated in the last three weeks. This is a sawmill town. The northern most major town in the province. It is the farthest north point that the CN railroad services in Quebec. This is a town of mostly Cree Indians. The town would not exist IF the sawmill burned down. Everyone would be out of work. Chibougamau Forest makes studs and wooden I-Beams. Google it.

Just to the east of there is Chapais. Another sawmill town home to Les Enterprises Barrett. Another producer of Spruce studs and also a large wooden fencing producer. The fires shut this both of these mills down for over a week.

In May there were forest fires in Nova Scotia for the first time in over a hundred years. The reason it did not make the news outside of New England is that the jet stream carried the smoke east out over the north Atlantic.

From a forestry perspective I have read remarks over the last few weeks that the Canadians do not manage their forests well. This is NOT accurate. The forests/timber are owned by the PROVINCE, not the Federal government. So, each province gives allotments on how much timber it cuts. Canada does a much better job at managing their forests than the US Forest Service. That is because each province has a vested interest in cutting timber to keep people in their province EMPLOYED. So, there is less politics involved.

Back when the province of British Columbia & Alberta had the Pine Bark beetle they cut the crap out of that dead and dying timber for ten years to get rid of it. They basically gave the timber to the sawmills to get rid of it. They OVERCUT for ten years. Now, there is not as much timber in BC to cut.

In the province of New Brunswick the majority of the timber is owned by JD Irving. The same Irving that owns a refinery in St John’s, NB. Oil tanker vessels. Plus hundreds of Irving gas stations across eastern Canada and New England. I believe he is the single biggest land owner in Canada.
James D. Irving also owns a big chuck of northern Maine. His sawmills provide most of the lumber Home Depot sells on the east coast of the US & Canada.

So, NO person at any sawmill in Canada that we deal with has made any statements that any of these fires were intentionally set.