Whereas the wildfire burden to BCs society, economy and environment over the last decade can be measured in billions of dollars; And whereas successive provincial governments have significantly underfunded mitigation programs; And whereas the current wildfire management strategy is overly reliant on FireSmart, placing wildfire risk mitigation at the homeowner level while much of the land requiring treatment is government controlled; And whereas the BC government inconsistently mitigates natural disasters: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM support lobbying the provincial government to support and implement changes to its wildfire mitigation practices to significantly fund Wildland Urban lnterface WUI fuels treatments, provide fire resilient communities and to maintain an effective wildfire response capability.
Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development The Community Resiliency Investment program, launched in September 2018, provides 60 million to assist local governments and First Nations mitigate wildfire threats around their communities. The Community Resiliency Investment allows local governments and First Nations to apply for funding to cover up to 100 of their wildfire risk reduction projects. Eligible applicants with a lower wildfire risk can apply for up to 25,000 per year, but applicants with a demonstrated higher wildfire risk can apply for up to 150,000 per year. To date, over 9.8 million has been allocated to assist with 129 projects throughout the province. The funding from the Community Resiliency Investment program can be used to assist with projects related to: education; planning; development; inter-agency cooperation; emergency planning; cross-training; FireSmart demonstration projects; fuel and vegetation management; and FireSmart activities for private land. The program takes a proactive approach to wildfire risk reduction and fuel management treatments by considering fire prevention and FireSmart activities on provincial Crown land, private land, local government land and reserve land.