The State of Emergency for B.C. will finally be lifted tonight

The Provincial Government has lifted the State of Emergency, issued on the evening of July 7th.

The state of emergency was extended four times over the nine weeks that followed.

Although the fire season isn’t quite at an end yet, Kevin Skrepnek of the BC Wildfire Service says that fire activity has started to cool down, with fewer and fewer new starts every day, and significant progress made on containing some of the major fires actively burning.

The government has released its long-term wildfire recovery plan, which incorporates the following four key components:

1. People and Communities: examining a range of social services required, based on community need, such as long-term mental-health support;

2. Economy: identifying short-, medium- and long-term recovery supports for the small business, tourism and resource-based sectors;

3. Environment: providing co-ordinated support for land-based recovery operations, such as reforestation; and

4. Infrastructure and Reconstruction: identifying recovery supports for local governments and First Nations in their direct recovery of infrastructure losses, with a focus on longer-term mitigation and adaptation.

The last provincial declaration of state of emergency before the current wildfire situation was issued in August 2003 to deal with wildfires.

The State of Emergency allows agencies such as Emergency Management BC, the Fire Commissioner, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, and the RCMP, the authority to take every action necessary in their response to the wildfire crisis.

It did have to be extended several times this summer, to July 19th, August 4th, August 18th, and then September 18th.