Smithers Council is lobbying the province to increase the effectiveness of wildfire protection planning on crown lands and around communities.
Mayor Taylor Bachrach says the province has increased the area local governments have to plan for while also decreasing planning funds and ending funding for operational fuel treatment. He also says the boundary for the area that Smithers has to plan for goes out past Round Lake.
“So it’s an example of what we feel is a provincial jurisdiction being downloaded to communities without adequate resources to do the work in an effective way,” says Bachrach.
“We just feel the responsibility for those plans and implementing them rests more appropriately with the provincial government, since a lot of those lands are provincial lands and since they have the expertise and the financial capacity to do the work that’s needed to protect our communities.”
Bachrach has written a letter to the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Doug Donaldson and Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Preparedness Jennifer Rice on the issue.
Council is also planning on bringing the concern to the upcoming Union of BC Municipalities Convention in September, where they hope to catch the ear of Donaldson.