Forest fires a national issue
NWT shares costs, resources with provinces

Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 04/99) - In a country as rich in timber and pristine wilderness as Canada, especially in the North, the protection of woodlands is a major concern.

To help consolidate firefighting efforts in Canada, the Canadian Inter-Agency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) was established in 1982 to provide forest fire management services to the provinces and territories so that forest firefighting efforts could be improved.

Joe Handley, deputy minister of Renewable Resources, Wildlife, Economic Development explains the NWT's involvement with CIFFC.

"Each province and territory is a member," says Handley. "Resources, mostly aircraft, but also ground crews and equipment, are shared among them. Second, it also provides expertise in terms of research, advise and tracking weather patterns across the country.

"The NWT has forest firefighting scientists that study the instances of fires and each year, we do the International Forests Project where scientist come from all around the world to study burn patterns and other related data. Some of them are quite well-known nationally, people like Bob Bailey (assistant deputy minister with RWED) and Rick Manoville (NWT fire behaviour specialist)."

According to Handley, CIFFC operates as a private non-profit corporation that shares resources at cost-level among the provinces and territories wherever the need arises.

"When a call comes through from a different jurisdiction for additional support from us, we will supply them with aircraft and pilots, for example. The receiving province is charged a fee equal to the cost of the operation. There is no profits made by anyone."

Tom Johnston, a duty officer at CIFFC headquarters in Winnipeg and former forestry manager for the North Slave region, adds further insight.

"Resources and costs are shared by each province and territory's capability to contribute and on the basis of their inventoried productive forest land," Johnston says. "The federal government pays one-third of the operational costs and the provinces pay two-thirds. A province like British Columbia, with large tracts of forests, will pay a larger cost than a province with less forest like PEI."

Considering the vastness of forest land in the NWT, CIFFC has been a much-needed support organization for forestry management according to Handley.

"Last year was a bad year for us," said Handley. "We had aircraft here from Quebec quite often, some from Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Alberta. This year we haven't had any fires yet, so we'll wait and see."

On the other side of the coin, the NWT has provided its own share of support.

"Our aircraft have been down to Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan this year," said Handley. "Everything with CIFFC is shared when any of the provinces or territories are capable of providing support."