A comprehensive report on the 2017 B.C. wildfires and floods has resulted in 108 recommendations on how the province can better adapt to climate change.
But to what extent the report鈥檚 findings impact the 2018 fire and flood season may be limited.
鈥淚 think modestly at least we may be better prepared this year,鈥� said George Abbott, a co-author along with Sto:lo Nation Chief Maureen Chapman of the report, titled 鈥淎ddressing the New Normal: 21st Century Disaster Management in British Columbia.鈥�
鈥淏ut we are still much more vulnerable than we should be and it will take substantial investment to raise our game on the (wildfire and flooding) prevention side. I salute what government has done and is doing so far through its own internal review process, but I think the magnitude of the challenge before us shows there is a significant way to go yet.鈥�
Related: No way to prevent 2017 spring flooding
Chapman and Abbott spoke to the media in Victoria on Wednesday in releasing their long-awaited report, particularly for many Okanagan communities and the Okanagan Basin Water Board hoping to see greater emphasis placed on government funding for longer-term preventative fire and flood measures.
The report鈥檚 recommendations hit on a variety of themes: Working better on preparedness and planning with Indigenous governments and communities; forming more strategic partnerships with ranchers, farmers, communities, logging contractors and Indigenous people in fighting fires; greater long-term preventative fire and flood land management initiatives; and adopting an aggressive wildfire suppression prescribed burning program.
Related: B.C braces for another summer of floods and fires
Chapman said it鈥檚 should be 鈥渁ll hands on deck鈥� when forest fires occur, where all available equipment and manpower resources can be marshalled to assist in a firefighting effort, coordinated in advance through establishing those strategic partnerships.
| Water bombers spray retardant over forest fire that erupted in Lake Country last summer. Photo: Lake Country Calendar files |
Abbott, a retired former Liberal MLA and cabinet minister from the North Okanagan, said their report revisited ideas that evolved from the Filmon Report compiled by the former Manitoba premier Gary Filmon in the aftermath of the Okanagan Mountain 2003 wildfire that were never acted upon, particularly regarding fire prevention measures.
鈥淲e need to start seeing more selective tree harvesting adjacent to communities, greater utilization of fibres now regarded as waste, more prescribed burning at interface and landscape levels鈥e need realize that forest fires have shaped our eco-system for thousands of years across our province鈥nd prescribed burning is one of the tools in our toolkit.鈥�
Related: Preparing for weather events in Okanagan communities
Abbott pointed to one day last summer, July 7, when 170 lightning strikes hit the Cariboo region starting 160 forest fires as a consequence.
鈥淭hat was well beyond the capacity of BC Wildfire Service to respond to, way too many fires. But as bad as that was it could have been so much worse.鈥�
He was referring to the record drought being experienced in the South Okanagan at that time.
鈥淚t was remarkably fortunate the lightning strikes we saw in the Cariboo did not occur in the South Okanagan during the same period. It would have been an overwhelming situation. I鈥檓 not sure how we would have managed that.鈥�
Communication and the spreading of misinformation on social media was another issue addressed by Abbott and Chapman, as they called for development of a central hub or 鈥渙ne-stop shop鈥� emergency communication website to provide the public with 鈥渞eliable, responsive, adaptive, real-time an customer-focused information.鈥�
鈥淔or most people, their home and property is their life investment and naturally they want to know what is going on after they are evacuated. There are ways we can up our game in that area. There were some pretty gripping stories we heard about people from Cache Creek hearing their community was being looted and that Ashcroft had burned to the ground,鈥� Abbott said.
Doug Donaldson, B.C. Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, said the full breadth of the report鈥檚 recommendations will take time to be considered, saying a response and cost analysis will be produced by his ministry Oct. 31.
Donaldson noted 19 of the recommendations have already been implemented through his ministry鈥檚 internal review of how it handled the 2017 wildfire and flood season was managed, and that his government has pledged $50 million over the next three years on wildfire prevention and risk reduction around communities.
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barry.gerding@blackpress.ca
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