2026 Wildfire Season

[YZT580]

No.

Military aircraft maintenance is really good. In many cases better than what civvies do.

But.

Military aircraft are not always designed the same way as civilian aircraft and militaries don’t keep maintenance records the same way civil operators do (we keep maintenance records- they just look different). For example, spare parts are tracked on some fleets completely differently than a civvy operator would be required to do.

So, to bring an ex-military fleet into the civil register means doing all the mods that the civvies care about but the military maybe does not; translating decades worth of maintenance records into a language Transport Canada (and future AMEs can understand); and then get TC inspectors (who on average have a knowledge base that is a mile wide and an inch deep). and probably some ADM to put their signatures on a document granting civil airworthiness. If anything goes wrong- those signatories are on the hook, potentially.

You can see why this gets so hard.

At least there is a civil version certified in Canada that perhaps they can fall back on: the L329 and there are, or were, a couple operating in the Arctic. Might even be dated back to the first of the H model, don't know. I know they have been around for a long, long time

 

[OldTanker]

I'm in contact with one of our vets and RCD Association members who has been evacuated from Summerland. I've shared his situation with the wider BC Association membership in case he needs assistance. So far so good. A terrible situation and only going to get much, much worse I fear.

 

[daftandbarmy]

The absolute state of the central southern interior today. Almost all of the west side of the Okanagan lake is burning or has been burned. Taken with the past few years it’s a compelling case to maybe not live here. Certainly scrap plans to grow the region by half a million.

That was the thinking during the gigantic 2003 fire season, which also leveled West Kelowna.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Town still safe so far. Air is dumping on the Eastern side of the fire.

I’ve been wondering if it has burned down to what used to be called Millionaires row. That seems to be in its eastward path down Prairie Valley Road. All the tidy orchard operations tucked in there

 

[Cloud Cover]

Get ready to be deployed lads.
Eby is now going live at 1PM and he is most certainly going to declare an emergency and request federal assistance.

 

[YZT580]

Get ready to be deployed lads.
Eby is now going live at 1PM and he is most certainly going to declare an emergency and request federal assistance.

be safe

 

[brihard]

Yup, province wide state of emergency declared.

 

[Altair]

Get ready to be deployed lads.
Eby is now going live at 1PM and he is most certainly going to declare an emergency and request federal assistance.

Would be nice to stand up a federal firefighting service. The military shouldn't need to be doing this.

Royal Canadian Wildfire Service, RCWS?

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Would be nice to stand up a federal firefighting service. The military shouldn't need to be doing this.

Royal Canadian Wildfire Service, RCWS?

And what would they do in winter? Help with trees removal after ice storms?

 

[Altair]

And what would they do in winter? Help with trees removal after ice storms?

Train, deploy overseas to help others with their wildfire seasons, be a general civic rescue force.

 

[MilEME09]

Gwt ready to spool up? B.C. declares provincial state of emergency over wildfires. People being airlifted from behind the fire line sounds insane.

B.C. declares provincial state of emergency over wildfires. Live updates here.

More than 20,000 people have been ordered to evacuate due to the fast-moving Bald Range wildfire in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley.

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[Cloud Cover]

Eby did the right thing here at the right time. Now use the authority wisely, as the smoke lifts the sun will heat everything up. Near certain we’ll have another catastrophic fire this year in another Okanagan location.

 

[childs56]

And what would they do in winter? Help with trees removal after ice storms?

They can clear deadfall around cities to keep the fries from rapidly gaining fuel sources and keep the towns and cities from burning to the ground.
They can assist with floods, other "extreme" weather events around.
Lots of "disaster" prep that can be done across the country to assist leading up to the situations that is not being done until it is to late.

 

[Fabius]

Would be nice to stand up a federal firefighting service. The military shouldn't need to be doing this.

Royal Canadian Wildfire Service, RCWS?

There is zero constitutional authority for the federal government in this. It’s a purely provincial sovereign matter.

The federal government has a coordination role for what amounts to a federated system of provincial assets and forces.

Having Ottawa try to take over would just increase the problems Canada has with understanding the respective jurisdictions.

 

[Altair]

There is zero constitutional authority for the federal government in this. It’s a purely provincial sovereign matter.

The federal government has a coordination role for what amounts to a federated system of provincial assets and forces.

Having Ottawa try to take over would just increase the problems Canada has with understanding the respective jurisdictions.

The provinces can still take lead, heck the provinces can reject the help of the RCWS.(I'm talking this into existence)

But any RCWS would be deployed on request for help from the provinces, same way the military is deployed to requests for help from the provinces.

The only difference is any future RCWS would actually be trained, equipped and optimised for that role, and the military can continue to focus on its actual duties.

 

[MilEME09]

Or we could, you know....hold provincial governments accountable for poor management of our forests etc

 

[Fabius]

Or we could, you know....hold provincial governments accountable for poor management of our forests etc

Voters certainly should. They can then decide where to invest their provincial resources.

I’m not one to think governments should be investing time, effort and resources into areas that are explicitly NOT their areas of jurisdiction.

If the federal government wants they can expand the number of water bombers, heavy equipment teams and type 1 attack teams with Canada Patks, since they are already part of the federated system.

 

[Altair]

Or we could, you know....hold provincial governments accountable for poor management of our forests etc

Sure. We should tell provinces they can ask for help all they like but the military will not be deployed to assist them.

Then they can either beef up their own wildfire services or burn.

 

[Altair]

Voters certainly should. They can then decide where to invest their provincial resources.

I’m not one to think governments should be investing time, effort and resources into areas that are explicitly NOT their areas of jurisdiction.

If the federal government wants they can expand the number of water bombers, heavy equipment teams and type 1 attack teams with Canada Patks, since they are already part of the federated system.

We already do. By proxy.

The CAF should not be deployed to assist provinces to fight wildfires.

 

[Fabius]

The CAF being deployed on fires has very little to do with firefighting and lots to do with optics.

There are existing mechanisms to discourage requests for the CAF, ie charging the provincial governments for all costs associated with the CAF deployment.
The sale of the C-130s to Coulson will do more for firefighting in Canada than deploying CAF ground troops as type 3 teams.