BC Premier “Profoundly Worried” About Upcoming Wildfire Season; Expands Contingency Fund

Speaking with members of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade about the new provincial budget on Friday, British Columbia Premier David Eby said he is “profoundly worried” about the potentially “terrible” upcoming wildfire season, The Canadian Press reported (2-23-24). In response, Eby said the province has set aside $10.6 billion (CAD) in contingency funds over the next three years.

Eby says parts of British Columbia—such as the Peace River, East Kootenay, and Upper Fraser regions—remain severely dry, and about 100 wildfires are still burning from last year’s record-breaking fire season. He said those are two factors that contribute to the need for the contingency fund for spending uncertainties in yesterday’s provincial budget.

Eby said the province is “standing up an army of firefighters” in preparation for this season’s wildfires, with about 1,000 people already applying to join the wildfire team this year. The premier also said the province is leasing aircraft and expanding infrastructure to allow for firefighters to conduct operations such as aerial missions at night, enhancing BC’s capacity to fight wildfires around the clock.

“We spent a billion dollars fighting forest fires last fire season, and we’re expecting this fire season to be even worse, so contingencies enable us to respond to those kinds of emergencies, as well as other issues that may arise during the year,” he said, according to The Canadian Press. “Disasters like that impacting our agriculture sector, floods, forest fires, are examples of these foreseeable but unpredictable costs that can arise during the year, which is what the contingency money is for.”