FWIW…
FWIW, BC bans access to the forests occasionally during extreme fire seasons...
2017 example...
Backcountry closed in the Cariboo
Alberta has done the same in past. However it's a measure of last resort in part due to needing sufficient law enforcement presence to ensure only pre-authorized people are in the closure area (usually limited to industry assuming liability for actions).
It's also further compounded by bad news reporting. Was in Ontario and they talked about a "massive out of control wildfire in cottage country" as breaking news...it's 27 ha total size. But it's close to Toronto and is close enough folks can relate to those fires where as the fires in NW Ontario that have been burning all year might as well be on a different planet. There has also been a large uptick of false fire information this year on sites such as Facebook with images of different fires posted onto "news updates" and/or old news being recycled as "new" updates. Yes...there was a crown fire 2 weeks ago but its' rained since...that's not the conditions today thank you very much Facebook.
Lastly...there just isn't many resources to go around. I'm not sure how many folks total are in the NFLD fire world...I know it's not many. Nova Scotia has more...but it's dozens...not hundreds of staff. PEI...sorry but it's a tiny pool. NB has some capacity but again it's more like dozens of firefighters...not 100's.
A complex fire in the Urban Interface like the ones in Newfoundland and I'd be ordering 100's of men, full IMT's, structural protection units, heavy equipment, a small air fleet....all of which are not available due to the rest of the country also burning.
This shows well what the national picture is like:
ciffc.net
To put this back on topic I do question what more the federal gov't could do to provide more services. Maybe some form of chain gang prison labour force to aid similar to CALFIRE (time on fires = time off sentence)? Can they assist with financing of aircraft and training platforms....maybe but they are also doing some of this. Land rehabilitation post fire is overlapping with the existing 2 Billion Tree initiative.
The problem is that when all resources are stretched thin there is little to no slack left....and when there are no events going on everyone cries about government wastage.
Many possible areas (building codes for example) fall into provincial jurisdiction as does resource/forest management. We already have too much overlap over who is responsible for each task between municipalities, provinces and the federal government but some possible ideas are:
1) start reducing the overlap (to clarify decision making processes) and
2) continue work such as the federal funding for the Canadian MODIS fire satellite program which allows national coverage for intelligence roles. 3) CFS (Canadian Forest Service) has done some excellent work on fuel grids for the country some provinces use (remotes sensing derived product)
4) Improve northern infrastructure to allow for better aircraft utilization and/or evacuation points
5) Provide loan garuntees for provincial major capital purchases to reduce interest rates. Note that if it's provincial purchase then it should be purchased by the province
6) Work on reviewing border security visa processes for emergency operations staff and/or add additional credit for immigrants. Currently language counts as a major score boost for immigrants (French or English as 2nd language = 50 points I'm told or 10% of the current threshold). What about key qualifications especially if it's validated here in Canada from previous experience?
www.thecanadianpressnews.ca
Interesting whisper-out to the "climate change lockdown" crowd ...
