On Feb. 14, New Brunswick announced that over $40 million will be invested to prepare the province for the increasing threat of wildfires.
This funding is coming from both the provincial and federal governments. $14.4 million will be put towards the national FireSmart Canada program which is set to launch in the province at the beginning of fire season on April 21.
Roger Collet, New Brunswick’s wildfire prevention officer, is the liaison between FireSmart Canada and the province. He said that the program will be used as a tool by property owners to help protect their home or greater community.
“There’s things you can do around your house that are going to prevent or help ignition. There’s no 100 per cent guarantee, even if you do everything perfectly,” said Collet.
FireSmart has an app and website dedicated to informing homeowners about how to help better prepare and protect their homes.
The resource isn’t only for homeowners, as the funding towards FireSmart will also be used by wildfire management to work with communities.
According to Collet, communities around the province can apply for a community protection plans which are “very detailed” and analyze the needs of particular communities.
“It’s not just a little ‘I’m going to sit down and do a little plan here,’ it’s quite detailed. These plans will be quite expensive to produce … that’s where most of the money is going,” he said.
The current plan is to focus on coordinating these plans for the first year and begin whatever mitigation work is required in the second year of the program.
Other funding that the department is receiving will be put towards repairing and refurbishing their current equipment and additional training programs to help better integrate wildfire fighters in New Brunswick.
Part of the importance of rolling out preventative wildfire measures is due to the impact of climate change, according to Collet.
“Fire season seems to be stretching; it’s not worse, it’s just a little longer … it seems now we’re having early springs every year,” he said.
Anthony Taylor is a professor in the forestry and environmental management department at the University of New Brunswick. His initial reaction to the funding was “positive.” He mentioned that there is room for improvement when it comes to climate change.
“Over the next 20 to 30 years, the climate is projected to warm by a certain amount that we really can’t do anything about now … it’s expected to widen the fire season by 20 to 30 days,” said Taylor. “You’ll have a higher frequency of days where the fire weather index is high.”
At the end of the day, Collet said that the biggest thing they’re trying to do with this additional funding is raise public awareness about wildfires.
“We’re teaching them about FireSmart so more people know about it … the biggest impact if people come on board with FireSmart is if it saves a community from any loss due to wildfires.”
Taylor said that studies show that more than 95 per cent of fires in the Maritimes are caused by people. He said that increasing awareness across the province is an “excellent point” to make.
“People need to become more aware and educated on their actions on how they play and work in the woods, if we want to do anything to prevent fires in this region,” he said.
“With a warming climate, the most immediate thing that we could do is try to educate the public on being much more fire smart.”
