The Mayor of Barriere is not happy with the make up of Premier David Eby’s expert task force on emergencies.
Ward Stamer – who was calling for a third-party review of the good, the bad, and the ugly of this year’s fire season – tells Radio NL he is disappointed, even though there are three people with ties to the Kamloops area on the 14 member task-force.
“There are no elected officials. There is nobody from the Forest Industry, not one representatives from the licensees,” Stamer said. “There is nobody with any frontline logging contractor experience, and also no elected no MLA officials. Nobody from the government, nobody from the opposition.”
“This isn’t what everybody at UBCM was asking for.”
Stamer says he is pleased to see TNRD CAO Scott Hildebrand, Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir, and Adams Lake Indian Band Kukpi7 Lynn Kenoras-Duck named to this task force, which was announced by the Premier during a stopover in Kamloops last month.
“That is great news but…I’m very disappointed in what the Premier has come up with because he could have very easily put in a couple of elected officials, particularly in this region,” Stamer added.
“It doesn’t have to be me, but I’ve got lots of experience and I think I bring a lot of knowledge to the table. But unfortunately they don’t probably want someone like me to be able to pick out some of the shortcomings that have been occurring year after year.”
Stamer is among a number of other local officials who have openly questioned the BC Wildfire Service for not actioning smaller fires immediately. He pointed to the Bush Creek East fire, which later merged with the former Lower East Adams Lake fire last month to become the 431 sq. kilometre behemoth it is, consuming wide swaths of the North Shuswap.
While Stamer says he doesn’t want to criticize those on the task force – as they’re “more than qualified” – he is planning to reach out to the Premier’s office with his concerns.
“If the task force is going to do what they say they’re going to do, they’re going to get at it very quickly, and [I’m hoping] that there will be an opportunity for that information to be shared with the public and not just have members of the task force meeting behind closed doors,” Stamer said.
“I’m just hoping that we’ll be able to at least be involved in the conversation and get to the bottom of some of the things that happened this summer.”
The task force is set to deliver its recommendations to the government early next year.