An all-party legislative finance committee is hoping the provincial government will spend more to prevent wildfires.
That recommendation was one of 106 made by the finance committee to the Ministry of Finance.
“And we heard this a lot, one of the things is dealing with the fuel out there. We’ve heard a number of submissions of the pine beetle and there being so much fuel out there, and trying to deal with that. One of the ways to mitigate wildfires is to get the fuel away from residential areas. There’s a lot of work to do, in terms of mitigation,” committee chair and Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Bob D’Eith says.
The all-party committee had 15 public hearings before coming up with the recommendations, which the Finance Ministry will consider before tabling budget in February for the 2020 fiscal year.
“One of the things that was great about this year, is we moved the consultation period from the fall to the late spring. So we actually went out on the road for the first time in June and we’ve been able to actually table the report now. Which is good, because it puts it in front of the budget process for 2020 instead of in the middle of the process,” D’Eith says.