Time for new ideas to reduce wildfire risk for communities: NDP critic

Criticizing the latest $25 million made available to communities to reduce wildfire risk, B.C. NDP forestry critic Norm Macdonald says the province must find a new method to protect communities from wildfires.

The $25-million program provided by the B.C. Liberals, which is administered through the Union of B.C. Municipalities, requires communities to provide a portion of matching funding. The proportion communities must contribute is 50 per cent during the planning stage, up to a maximum of $15,000, which decreases to between 10 and 25 per cent at the stage where the on-the-ground work is carried out.

The level is 10 per cent for the first $100,000, and 25 per cent between $100,000 and $400,000.

The B.C. Liberals say Macdonald's criticism is misplaced, as it's not unreasonable to ask communities to contribute a small portion to reduce wildfire risk to their communities.

However, Macdonald said there are communities that simply do not have any funding to spare.

"This is just the latest example of how communities are being utterly abandoned by the B.C. Liberals," said Macdonald. "Local governments vulnerable to wildfires are told they have to go out onto Crown land to clean up the dead wood on the forest floor. They're already strapped for cash."

Macdonald said the bigger issue is that the program is simply not doing enough to address the risks, noting only a small percentage of land has been treated that was identified in a 2004 report by former Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon following the severe Kelowna fires.

While traditionally the fire hot zone has been located in the Southern Interior, in 2010 it moved farther north, fuelled by extremely dry conditions in the vast beetle-killed pine forests in Central and Northern B.C.

The idea behind the wildfire risk reduction program -where $37 million had been spent up to 2010 - was that land surrounding communities would be treated by removing trees, thinning forests and removing fuel of twigs and branches that had accumulated on the forest floor.

Macdonald said he's a proponent of allowing communities to have some control over their perimeter forests, or using a community forest model. The community forest model is one that has been used in Prince George with some success.

Macdonald also believes the province should take a stronger leadership role in identified critical areas for wildfire risk reduction.

More effort also needs to take into take into account often-remote First Nation communities which also face wildfire risk threats, he said.

Nechako Lakes Liberal MLA John Rustad called the New Democrats' position on the $25-million wildfire risk reduction program misleading. He noted it is only under the planning stage that communities must come up with matching funding of 50 per cent.

"I don't think that's unreasonable to ask communities to pay about 10 per cent when they actually get down to the activities that are going to be up to," said Rustad, a former forest industry consultant.

Rustad, independently of Macdonald, also suggested there are other models that could be considered, including the idea of communities having access to the forests to create a fire-buffer area.

The timber and woody material that would come from that buffer area could be used to fuel energy plants that provide heat or electricity to the community, said Rustad, noting that rural communities are starting to examine the use of bioenergy.

Burns Lake, a community in Rustad's riding, is examining the idea of an energy plant fuelled by wood to produce heat for civic and other buildings in its core.