The BC and Federal governments will continue to support people in the province and First Nations communities facing the consequences of this year’s wildfires.
A meeting was held yesterday and focused on joint response, recovery and rebuilding efforts.
Minister of Public Services and Procurement Carla Qualtrough says the property loss for First Nations groups has been significant.
“These wildfires have impacted many First Nations communities including the loss of houses, culturally significant buildings, crops, and infrastructure including fences and bridges.”
The meeting was also the first of its kind. “The Wildfire season is unprecedented and we also need to typify this meeting as unprecedented. We had 9 federal cabinet ministers, we had the entire provincial MLA task force and cabinet minister task force on the Wildfire situation,” says Doug Donaldson, minister of forests, lands, natural resources, and rural development.
He adds they need to look ahead on when or if this situation arises again. “We have to talk about prevention and the future and future years and we need to be strong on our Partnerships with the First Nations and with the federal government to do that and especially with the federal government through the Wildland Fire Strategy that’s been signed off by all provincial forest ministers and the federal government.”
In addition, the 2017 Canada-British Columbia Wildfires Recovery Initiative will provide up to $20 million dollars to assist agricultural producers with significant costs incurred to help recover from this year’s wildfires.
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