Premier Christy Clark Calls for National Wildfire Action Plan

“We have faced one of our worst forest fire years ever,” commented Premier Christy Clark during a question period following a premiers’ meeting in St. John’s, Newfoundland on Thursday.

In attendance alongside Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, Clark put out a call for a strategic national action plan to be implemented before the next fire season.

Members of the Sentinel Unit Crew from Ontario. (Photo Credit: BC Forest Fire Info.)

Having burned through B.C.’s $60 million wildfire budget in a matter of weeks, the province is now looking at spending approximately three to four hundred million dollars by the time the 2015 fire season is over.

Considering the tight grip on B.C.’s finances and resources, Clark suggested that Canada look into a national strategy to help share additional resources.

“The challenge that we’ve had, is that years ago Ministers sat down and came up with a national strategy to share resources, this year we’ve been maxed out,” said Clark. “In B.C., we’ve been going to Australia, we’ve looked as far as South Africa to try and bring experienced and trained firefighters in—people who are good at fighting fires on the very difficult terrain you find in British Columbia.”

Photo Credit: BC Forest Fire Info.

Clark also brought up climate change, prompting a national focus on the reality of our warming summers.

“These long hot, burning summers are not going to be the exception, they’re going to be more commonly the rule,” said Clark. “We have to rethink the way that we deal with fires, and the way that we prepare to deal with fires, because the world is changing, the climate is changing and we’re going to have to adjust our capacity to meet those changes accordingly.”

The number of fires sparked in B.C. this year has nearly doubled in comparison to 2014. Over 150 wildfires are still burning in the province, and it doesn't look like the warm and dry conditions we've been experiencing will relent anytime soon.