WHEREAS the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Womens Services issued a request to all fire departments on November 24th, 2003 requesting that all fire departments send in fire reports for all fires regardless of dollar loss; AND WHEREAS this reporting requirement imposes additional work loads for fire departments across the province and the compensation of 3 per report barely covers the cost of investigation and filing: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Minister of Community, Aboriginal and Womens Services reimburse local governments for the investigation and reporting cost for all fires under 500 at 50 per report on fires of this nature that are investigated and reported.
MINISTRY OF FORESTS Approximately 6,500 fires are reported to the Office of the Fire Commissioner annually. However, not all fire departments report fires. The new requirements to report all fires may cause the number of reported fires to increase over three hundred percent; from 6,500 to nearly 20,000 incidents annually. Remuneration at the proposed amount of 50 per report would result in annual expenditures of nearly 1 Million. Approximately 1,500 of the 6,500 fires currently reported record losses of under 500. If the reported number of less-than 500 loss fires triples, as expected, annual remuneration at the proposed rate would be 250,000. Current reimbursement entitlements for submitted fire reports are 19,500. The Incident Reporting Task Group has not recommended increasing the remuneration for report submission. The Fire Chiefs Association has recommended eliminating remuneration for report submission. MINISTRY OF COMMUNITY, ABORIGINAL AND WOMENS SERVICES The collection of fire statistics is very valuable for the design of fire prevention and education programs, analysis of the BC fire situation, as well as providing data which will allow us to maintain and improve our excellent record of fire safety. The collection and analysis of this information benefits all British Columbians as it contributes to positive safety outcomes in fire prevention and suppression activities. The Fire Chiefs Association of BC and Fire Prevention Officers Association of BC support the reporting of all fires, including non-dollar loss fires, to improve fire prevention activities. However, the Fire Chiefs Association does not support increasing the fee payable for investigated and reported fires.