VANCOUVER—The “extraordinary toll” of British Columbia’s two record-setting fire seasons in a row has sparked a new prevention fund the province unveiled Monday — one that will for the first time let the Union of B.C. Municipalities decide how best to disburse the $50 million cash for preventing and mitigating forest fire damage.

Although the three-year funding was already announced in February’s budget, Forests Minister Doug Donaldson revealed he was abandoning the previous model where municipalities had to share the costs of prevention efforts with the province.

The province’s new Community Resiliency Investment fund will instead let towns, starting Monday until Dec. 10, to apply for prevention cash in its entirety — a total of $10 million for the current fiscal year.

“We really have to bolster the preventative aspect,” Donaldson told reporters at the UBCM conference in Whistler, B.C. “Forest fires are going to continue to be part of the landscape.”

The minister told delegates that the current two-kilometre buffer cities were required to maintain around their boundaries would now also be handled by the province.

Just prior to his announcement, Donaldson told delegates from municipalities and regional districts across the province — some of them who faced evacuation orders this year or last — that unfortunately raging wildfires should now be expected, though he bristled at one catchphrase used in an in-depth fire response review released in April: “the new normal.”

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“Wildfires are a fact of life in B.C.,” he told UBCM delegates. “What we've experienced in the past couple years was extraordinary … but it’s predictable”

Several representatives from fire-impacted towns and regional districts stood up to express concerns about what they described as inconsistent communication with the Wildfire Service and government, as well as difficulties understanding how to apply for required funding.

Margo Wagner, the chair of the Cariboo Regional District that saw numerous fires through both the last two years, said this year’s communication was “much improved” particularly authorities’ use of social media. But she said it was particularly difficult to arrange meetings with fire authorities until they had already established fire centres into the wildfire season.

“You need to know from us on the ground, we know our areas, we know what’s going on,” she told Donaldson. “We were stretched from our fire season last year, we know B.C. Wildfire Service was stretched too. But we need to meet with you.”

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Donaldson told them he had heard their concerns, which were shared during his travels across the province, and the UBCM’s management of the new fund would help address the problems in previous seasons.

“I look in the eyes of some of you in this room, and know that it’s taken a big toll on you,” he said.

With files from Jen St. Denis

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