Whereas the provincial government provides funding for support staff at fire centres throughout the province of British Columbia; And whereas the Cariboo Fire Centre experienced record-breaking wildfires in 2017, and more wildfires are predicted in this area: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM lobby the provincial government to increase funding to those fire centres that are experiencing substantial increased wildfire activity in their areas.
Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development In the wake of the unprecedented 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons, the B.C. Government invested heavily in wildfire prevention and preparedness initiatives to help keep British Columbians safe and protect the provinces natural resources and infrastructure. The BC Government allocated 101 million for Direct Fire costs in the 2019-20 wildfire season, representing a 58 percent increase over the previous years firefighting budget. This is helping the BC Wildfire Service BCWS improve its fire response capabilities by adding more crews, enhancing aircraft capacity and spending more on fire prevention activities. More than 1,700 firefighters and support staff are in place for the 2020 wildfire season. The BCWS allocates firefighting resources to all six fire centres and relocates those highly mobile resources as needed throughout the fire season to respond to varying levels of fire risk and fire activity throughout the province. This year, BCWS is hiring an additional two initial attack crews in the McKenzie Zone, three initial attack crews and one Crew Supervisor Cariboo Fire Centre, one initial attack crew in the North Island Mid Coast Zone and one initial attack crew in the Pemberton Zone. We are also hiring three para-attack crews. All these crews consist of three firefighters each. Volunteer and composite fire departments throughout BC have received a 5-million boost for equipment and training through the Provinces Community Emergency Preparedness Fund, distributed through the Union of B.C. Municipalities. This money is part of a newly established funding stream to help eligible applicants in local government and First Nations communities build resiliency with firefighter training and new or replacement firefighting equipment. The use of the industry equipment task force model continues to be expanded throughout the province to support initial attack efforts. These task forces are a combination of heavy equipment, operators and line locator personnel that can be quickly deployed in response situations. BCWS held joint training workshops with forest industry licensees in spring 2019 and spring 2020 to enhance wildfire response throughout the province.