After a hot and dry summer season that saw wildfires break out across the province, North Cowichan wants to put a focus on wildfire protection in the municipality.
At the council meeting on Sept. 17, Coun. Christopher Justice and Coun. Mike Caljouw introduced a motion, which passed unanimously, that North Cowichan adopt a comprehensive and proactive strategy to prepare and respond to wildfire threats, and that staff prepare a report outlining how best to develop and implement the strategy.
Caljouw said that with hotter and drier summers, and growing risks of wildfires across B.C., it’s essential that the municipality take proactive steps to protect residents, homes, forests and infrastructure.
He said that by elevating wildfire preparedness to a strategic priority in North Cowichan, the municipality can ensure resources are directed towards prevention, response planning and community resilience.
“This motion is about safeguarding lives and property while strengthening our ability to face future challenges together,” Caljouw said. “I urge council to support this motion so North Cowichan can lead the way in responsibly moving forward in wildfire preparedness."
Justice said the threat of wildfires in B.C. is increasing every year and North Cowichan is in a danger zone.
He said the municipality has dense forests right next to residential areas and, with a warming and drying climate, it continues to develop into a high-risk zone for wildfires.
“I think the [Mount Underwood] wildfire in Port Alberni was a bit of a wake up call,” Justice said.
“We have fires every year but this was of a new level. I understand it was burning particularly hot and exhibiting fire behaviour that hasn’t been seen before on Vancouver Island. It’s hard to imagine what might have transpired had we not magically had a mid-August rainstorm, which is a pretty rare event.”
Justice said North Cowichan fire chief Ron French has made it clear that North Cowichan is not ready for a major wildfire, and it doesn’t have the proper equipment to fight one.
"If a serious wildfire develops, we’re going to be relying on BC Wildfire which worked out really well this year, but it might not in future years when BC Wildlife is fully occupied with blazes in other parts of the countryside,” he said.
“That’s not much of a plan, it’s more of a hope. We don’t have wildfire evacuation plans, we don’t have a really sophisticated program of FireSmart training and no lessons for people who want to FireSmart their homes.”
Justice said the risk of wildfires is higher in North Cowichan than most other communities because of its topography, road systems and other factors.
“So what we need is our experts — our firefighters our planners and other staff leaders — to put their heads together and say, OK, what do we need to do and how do we need to do it to actually become as prepared as possible?” he said.
“We’ve been lucky so far, but it’s probably a question of when. We need to take the lead and give this community the protection it needs.”
