B.C. budget to focus on climate change, including year-round wildfire service, minister says
CBC
Climate change will be a focal point of British Columbia's 2022 budget, including a new plan to fund a year-round wildfire relief service, according to the province's finance minister.
On Monday, Finance Minister Selina Robinson told reporters that making sure communities have the resources they need to deal with the effects of climate change will be at the forefront of her budget when it is released on Tuesday.
Robinson says the province was battered by forces driven by climate change over the past year, including deadly heat, wildfires and storms that caused major flooding across southern B.C.
The province is also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and an overdose crisis.
"We've been through a lot together and I'm not just talking about the dual health emergencies that we continue to face," Robinson said at a news conference. "The past few years have clearly demonstrated the destructive effects of climate change."
Heat waves that resulted in hundreds of deaths last summer, wildfires that swept through Lytton and Monte Lake, and floods and mudslides that devastated farms in the Fraser Valley and crippled highway and rail transportation routes to the Interior are clear signals climate change has arrived, she said.
"And as government, we are committed to ensure people and communities have the resources that they need to face this challenge," said Robinson.
She says the government plans to introduce a year-round B.C. Wildfire Service dedicated to full-time fire prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.
"It will ensure that B.C. Wildfire Service has trained staff able to both prepare for and respond to future wildfires. It's an acknowledgement of what we have seen with B.C. wildfire season starting sooner and ending later each year," she said.
Robinson did not directly address estimates on the financial cost of last fall's floods and mudslides in southern B.C., other than to say the details will be in the budget.
Last November, Robinson forecast a budget deficit of $1.7 billion for the 2021-22 fiscal year, down from the original projection of $9.7 billion last February.
Robinson is set to present the 2022 budget at 1:30 p.m. PT Tuesday.
'It's our space': Thunder Bay residents rally to save parkette as city aims to sell land for housing
Residents of a small southside neighbourhood in Thunder Bay, Ont., say they're willing to fight once again to save their parkette from being sold by the city and redeveloped into housing.