Solutions need funding for future fire seasons

Opinion

As the wildfire season begins to finally subside, and with Manitoba’s many fires now either deemed “under control” or being “monitored,” the province must begin the laborious job of readying a plan for the next one come spring.

That means considering what worked and what didn’t — with an eye toward improving the performance of those efforts. That work will be necessary, because Manitoba is experiencing more frequent and more deadly wildfires from year to year, and it’s necessary to assume that there will be more. And we will need to be ready.

This past summer marked the worst wildfire season in Manitoba in at least 30 years, with well over 1.55 million hectares having burned in the province as of early August — and the fires have continued to burn since then.

The Canadian Red Cross said Thursday that about 32,000 people were registered as evacuees at various times over the course of the summer, according to a report by The Canadian Press, with many of them flown out of remote communities and sent to large congregate shelters in Winnipeg or put up in hotel rooms in Brandon and other parts of the province.

To its credit, Manitoba’s evacuation and firefighting efforts that were put into motion this year did a lot of good for several affected communities; this in spite of the fact that the situations on the ground — in both the wildfire zones and among the evacuated populations — were often chaotic and difficult to manage.

Of course, these efforts came with a rather steep price tag at a time when the province is already mired in debt — Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says costs associated with this year’s wildfire season are pushing $180 million, and there are still more expenses expected.

Still, these were necessary costs that the province had to incur, and so it’s worth evaluating how those dollars could be better spent on the next go-round.

It must be said that one of the success stories of the evacuation efforts came through the work of First Nations safety officers from Long Plain First Nation, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, Skownan First Nation and Waywayseecappo First Nation, along with the Southern Chiefs Organization’s Mobile Crisis Response Team — all of whom worked directly with wildfire evacuees here in Brandon in tandem with our own Brandon Police Service.

As we reported this week, safety officers, who are granted peace officer status as per the Manitoba Police Act regulations, worked for about 20 hours a day, mainly at hotels where evacuees stayed, as a link between police and the community.

Their work drew praise from Southern Chiefs Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels, Brandon Police Service Chief Tyler Bates and Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett, who credited the safety officers with providing comfort for evacuees, through an organization they already knew and understood.

And their presence at the various hotels hosting evacuations was credited by Bates as one of the reasons that low-level disturbances and conflicts didn’t escalate into more serious criminal incidents.

That does not mean, of course, that evacuees are inherently criminal, but it does speak to the fact that when a given population — one that is already under extreme duress — is placed into a new and different community with little to do but wait, there is an inevitable culture clash.

Having First Nations safety officers there as a bridge was an intelligent way to address those cultural differences.

“The FNSOs were very good at communicating with residents. They were very present communicating with the evacuees and the residents that were down here from the north,” Fawcett said. “It was a very positive initiative to have them out here assisting. I really didn’t hear anything but positive feedback on the role of the FNSOs.”

In his interview with the Sun this week, Daniels also stated that most of the funding for safety officers comes from First Nations themselves, with “very little” coming from the provincial and federal governments.

There is certainly some truth to that statement.

First Nations safety officers, such as those in Manitoba, are primarily funded through the federal-provincial/territorial First Nations and Inuit Police Program (FNIPP) through a cost-sharing partnership requiring a 52 per cent federal contribution and a 48 per cent provincial/territorial contribution.

But that only covers the initial training, equipment and salaries, as ongoing operational costs and officer salaries are carried by the First Nation itself after training is completed.

Daniels called for a permanent FNSO regional program with funding support from the federal and provincial governments, because “this summer proved what works.”

And he is right, of course. We already know that wildfires will likely be an ongoing issue in Canada for the foreseeable future, and it’s time for long-term, properly funded solutions to this situation. The FNSO program is a good fit as one of those solutions. But that, too, will come at a cost. Who will pay for it?

The question lingers in the air, like so much smoke and ash.