B.C. Fires: Province burns through wildfire budget again

Critics say the province is spending huge amounts of taxpayers money fighting forest fires when it should be focusing its efforts on preventing them.

Climatemodels predict hot, dry summers will be the new normal in B.C., and forestry experts such asLoriDaniels say the province needs to be realistic.

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The province allocated $63 million to fight wildfires and burned through thatwithin weeks of the forest fire season taking off in May.As of today, the bill is $198 million more than three times what was budgetedand climbing.

The province has overspent its wildfire budget for nine out of the past 10 years.B.C's Forests minister Steve Thomson saysthat's because the province doesn't want to tie up the funds.

'What we don't want to do is to tie up resourcesin a budget linethat could be available for other purposes in the event that we don't need them," he saidFriday.

But Daniels, theUBC Forestry expert says while BC has shelled out almost $200 million fighting wildfires this year, less than $1 millionhas been spent in southern B.C.to cut the risk of forest fires.

She says the province has to take more of a lead, especially with Environment Canada warning thewarm ElNinocurrentnicknamed "GodzillaElNino" is continuing to build. That meansthere could be little snow again this winter and B.C. is in for a repeat of this year's widespread drought conditions.

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"This summer has been a real wake-up call for BritishColumbia," she said. "We need to come up with some big picture changes to some of our forest management policies."

Danielssays this can be done by starting programs to remove surface fuel hazards, such as debris, branches, leaves andestablish a provincial strategy for fireproofing communities.