BC on pace to spend record amount fighting wildfires

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – An active wildfire season in BC has come with a heavy financial cost so far.

The province has spent just over $106 million so far to fight wildfires around the province.

Provincial Fire Information Officer Kevin Skrepnek says that amount is the most we’ve spent in recent years. “In terms of a year-to-year analysis of the budget, it’s hard to pin down. In terms of activity though, I can say this has been our busiest year since 2010.”

Skrepnek says the dollar figure is to be expected with the dry weather.

“We are sitting at a little over $106 million. With the level of activity we’ve had over the last few weeks, that’s not unexpected.”

But, he says that amount doesn’t hamper future firefighting efforts. “The province is always going to spend what is necessary to respond to these fires. Especially if we’re talking about fires that are threatening values like homes, infrastructure.”

Which means we could set a record for money spent.

“Looking back to 2012, 2013 our total budget was around sitting at around $120 to $130 million. Looking at the date, we still have a lot of fire season ahead of us and there’s certainly a potential we could exceed those costs of previous years,” says Skrepnek.

He calls the Chelaslie River in northern BC the biggest active concern.

Prevention costs more than just money: NDP

NDP Forestry Critic Harry Bains thinks this shows the need to focus more on prevention.

“All experts are going to agree that every dollar spent on fire mitigation and prevention will save you ten dollars in the overall cost of fighting fires.”

Bains says it’s not just about dollars and cents, adding the fires take their toll on a number of things.

“It leaves a huge cost: human health, property values going down, agriculture, and private equity. All that is affected negatively when there is a big fires.”