The Working Forest Newspaper

Slave Lake fire shows need to implement national fire strategy

May 27, 2011

By: The Canadian Press

The wildfire that razed a third of Slave Lake, Alta., this month shows why the federal government needs to invest more money in a national strategy to manage forest fires, one expert says.

While Brian Stocks admits it wouldn't likely have saved Slave Lake from the fast-moving blaze that blackened entire neighbourhoods on May 15, a fully implemented national plan could help other towns prepare if a fire threatens their community.

"There are hundreds of Slave Lakes across Canada," said Stocks, who's worked with the Canadian Forest Service for almost 40 years and now runs his own wildfire investigations company.

Stocks said Wednesday that federal and provincial ministers should meet to discuss how to fund a program they years ago designed but have spent little money on.

The Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy has "languished" since it was developed by the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers in 2005 after wildfires devastated Kelowna, B.C., in 2003, said Stocks.

Speaking at a news conference held by the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, an independent research organization created by the insurance industry, Stocks called on the federal government to provide money for the program as it promised six years ago.

"We had a strategy in place for the last six or seven years that we all agreed to and basically it's languished," said Stocks. "Now is the time to say we need to get back on track here. The federal government needs to step up and take an active role in that."

"There's no federal money going into this," he added.

While some aging equipment such as tankers have been replaced, nowhere near the $230 million a year the strategy called for has been spent, according to Stocks.

Whipped by 100 km/h winds, the fire spread so fast in Slave Lake that some people only had minutes to get out. Stocks presented satellite imagery that showed the wildfire, which had been contained the day before, flaring up at 2 p.m. local time with the flames reaching the community three hours later.

Officials announced Wednesday that residents of Slave Lake can begin returning to the town, but some won't have much to go back to after the fire devastated whole blocks of homes and businesses.

While it may have been impossible to save Slave Lake, Stocks said more funding for the national strategy could lead to fireproofing of buildings being improved, firewalls being built around communities, and public education campaigns.

Money must also be found for new firefighting equipment and hiring and training new fire personnel to replace the hundreds who retire every year, said Stocks. Declining to name a figure, the amount should be decided by the country's forestry ministers, he said.

But convincing governments to spend money on fighting forest fires when their priorities are focused on health care, education or regional issues may be a tough sell, he said.

A spokesman for Natural Resources Canada said the strategy was created as a framework to guide decision making and jurisdiction-specific investment decisions, noting the provinces and territories are responsible for wildfire management.

"A 2008 update determined that jurisdictions were using the (Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy) as a vision and priority setting guide and had made progress in implementation," said Paul Duchesne.

Figures from the council of forest ministers in 2008-09 estimated about 2.5 million hectares burn across Canada each year on average, and it costs $400 million to $1 billion a year to suppress them.

The Canadian Press