The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George is calling on the provincial government to provide quick, timely compensation to volunteer fire departments who respond to wildfires.
The district has forwarded a resolution to the Union of B.C. Municipalities, asking for that organization’s support for the cause, following a vote by the board of directors on Thursday.
“Each summer the province places a call out to local governments for additional resources to assist with wildland urban/interface emergency fire events across British Columbia. The reimbursements for rental of apparatus and firefighter wages for these deployments can be lengthy, putting an undo financial strain on the volunteer firefighters who staff the fire apparatus that go on the deployments,” district manager of public safety operations Melanie Perrin wrote in a report to the district board. “Additionally, there are costs associated with replenishing and repairing equipment that was deployed.”
Regional district CAO Jim Martin said the payments from the provincial government do always come, but the wait for payment “has been in excess of six months, or even a year.”
“Providing assistance to other communities with additional firefighting resources in a time of a wildfire emergency event is important to all communities, as it varies each year on who needs the assistance and who may have the ability to offer assistance,” the text of the resolution going to UBCM says. “In many cases, firefighters take ‘leave without pay’ from their regular line of work in order to go on these emergency deployments to provide help where it is direly needed. Equipment supplied by volunteer fire departments require replenishing and repair, and although damages incurred are covered by the province, it is at a cost to the volunteer fire service budget to make the initial repairs and await reimbursement.”
If the UBCM resolutions committee approves the resolution, it will be brought forward to the UBCM convention in September for consideration by the organization membership.
