Province making changes to reduce wildfire threat

The B.C. government says it has addressed almost 92 per cent of the recommendations in the Abbott-Chapman report that looked into B.C’s major 2017 wildfire and flood seasons.

Forests Minister Doug Donaldson says they have acted on 99 of the 108 recommendations made in the report.

“We were all aware of the risk of catastrophic wildfires leading up to 2017, but at that time, not enough work was done to prepare people and communities,” said Donaldson.

One-point-two (1.2) million hectares burned in 2017, forcing more than 65,000 residents out of their homes during the longest state of emergency in B.C.’s history.

The total cost of wildfire and flood response in 2017 was close to $650 million.

George Abbott, the former Liberal cabinet minister and MLA for Shuswap, and Chief Maureen Chapman wrote the report after consultations with First Nations, local governments, residents, industry and other stakeholders affected by wildfires and flooding that year.

The province released the second progress update on its Government’s Action Plan Thursday, outlining the work that’s been done on the recommendations over the past year:

* Responses to 99 of the recommendations (or about 92% of the total) are now considered to be “complete” (49 recommendations) or “underway” (19), or “substantial improvement” has been achieved (31).

* Of the remaining nine recommendations, four require further analysis and discussion, while alternative approaches are being used to address the other five recommendations.

“We continue to make solid progress on the report’s recommendations, such as incorporating the United Nations’ Sendai Framework and collaborating with First Nations on emergency management improvements,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. “We’re going to continue to move forward with these changes and entrench them in our modernization of the Emergency Program Act to ensure this critical piece of legislation is responsive to the needs of all British Columbians.”

The Abbott-Chapman report made it clear that governments needed to improve how to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from wildfires and floods.

“Chief Maureen Chapman and I spent months travelling around the province last year in the wake of the 2017 wildfire and freshet seasons. We listened very closely to the concerns of many individuals and communities who were directly affected by those catastrophic events,” Abbott said. “It’s encouraging to see the B.C. government’s prompt and thorough response to our report, and heartening to see how much work has been done to address our report’s recommendations.”