Federal government giving B.C. $416M for response, rebuild costs from 2021 wildfire season

The federal government is giving British Columbia $416 million in funding for response and rebuild costs from the devastating 2021 wildfire season.

Federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair made the announcement at a news conference at Vancouver’s Stanley Park Friday.

“From fires and extreme heat waves to the devastating flooding we saw last November, British Columbians have really been … incredibly challenged by very difficult natural disasters occurring here, and it does require us to work together,” Blair said.

The 2021 wildfire season was one of the worst on record in B.C., with 8,700 square kilometres burned and thousands of people evacuated from their homes.

Some of the federal funding will go towards the Village of Lytton, which was destroyed by the Lytton Creek wildfire last June.

An additional $24 million, as well as 39 interim housing units, will go to the Lytton First Nation.

The funding is being provided through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program.

$8.4 million will also go to B.C. First Nations to support emergency planning, preparedness and response.

"Many communities talked to me about the inherent knowledge that they had, and the steps they would have recommended had anyone listened," said Patty Hajdu, minister of Indigenous services.

“I think that’s such a huge loss to all of us in this country that colonization has led to an ignoring of that important knowledge for too long,” Hajdu added.

The B.C. government has already committed $2.2 billion for fire and flood recovery, but says it will be beefing up it’s response this year.

“Our government has made significant new investments in the River Forecast Centre and the B.C. Wildfire Service, including moving the Wildfire Service to a year-round service model," said Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth.

The Canadian government has also allotted $516 million in the 2022 budget to train 1,000 additional firefighters and incorporate Indigenous traditional knowledge in fire management across the country.

They’ll also be developing a new wildfire monitoring system.