Whereas the effects of climate change are increasing disaster intensity, duration, frequency, and scale of emergencies and regional districts do not have the ability to increase the capacity of personnel, finances, or resources to meet the demands within identified jurisdictional fire protection zones to manage the increasing number of local wildfire emergencies; And whereas the Province of British Columbia has outlined changes to the Cooperative Community Wildfire Response program with an unattainable expectation of the role expected of the regional district that includes the expectation the service area goes beyond established regional district fire protection zones: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM request the Province of BC to assume full responsibility of wildfire response efforts in areas outside of fire protection zones, with recognition of operational capacities of regional districts; And be it further resolved that UBCM request the Province of BC to support collaboration between BC Wildfire Service and regional districts to share resources in continued efforts to effectively respond to wildfire emergencies and enhance community resilience.
Ministry of Forests The BC Wildfire Service BCWS an agency of the provincial Ministry of Forests has primary responsibility for wildfire management and response on Crown and private lands outside of organized fire protection areas i.e., outside municipalities or regional districts with established fire departments. When wildfires threaten or impact rural communities outside of fire protection areas, BCWS is responsible for the coordination, deployment and dispatching of fire department resources and community groups. - Fire departments: Response based on request from BCWS and are engaged through the provincial interagency agreement, particularly in the wildlandurban interface. - Cooperative Community Wildfire Response groups: BCWS can and does hire organized volunteer or community wildfire response groups outside protection zones for supervised low-risk tasks. These groups are hired by and operate under BCWS and are not the responsibility of the regional district nor are they authorized to independently suppress wildfires. In addition to being responsible for response, BCWS delivers and funds training to ready fire department resources and rural and remote firefighting groups so as to ensure the safe and effective use of these resources outside of fire protection areas.