The high cost of fighting this year’s wildfires is putting a dent in the B.C. economy.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said that despite the high cost of the fire season, the province’s budget is still expected to be in the black. However, the year-end surplus for 2015-16 is now projected to be $277 million, down $7 million from the original projections. And even though revenues have improved by $374 million, government spending is forecast to increase by $381 million, mainly due to the cost of fighting forest fires.
The cost-keeping record for the current season started on April 1 and has leaped beyond the $63 million originally allocated to fighting wildfires this season by the end of June.
Despite significant water restrictions and fire bans across the province, the costs kept going up as the stretch of drought-like weather conditions continued throughout much of July.
By the B.C. Day long weekend, the province was faced with a bill that was three times the original wildfire fighting budget ($170,151,391). That number went up to over $255 million by the end of August.
Despite cooler temperatures and more precipitation in the month of September, the costs kept climbing and have now reached nearly $272 million (as of Sept. 18).
That’s still less than the 2014/2015 season’s total of nearly $298 million although the current season is not yet finished. B.C. Wildfire Service says 99 wildfires are still burning throughout B.C.
See how the wildfire fighting costs increased through the summer months.
The most expensive years in the past decade for the province came in 2003/2004 at a total cost of $371,200,659 and 2009/10 at $382,133,831.
The current 10-year average net expenditure is $158,872,462.
Every year, the B.C. government allocates a wildfire fighting budget, but goes over the allotted amount almost annually, at least in the last decade. Only in the 2005/2006 and the 2011/2012 fiscal years did the province come under budget.
So how much money did the province actually spend on fighting wildfires in the last decade?
Here is the breakdown of the budgeted versus actual wildfire fighting costs from 2004 to 2014.
IMPORTANT: In 2011/12, the Wildfire Management Branch received Treasury Board approval to adjust how its budget was allocated. Some expenditures were moved from Fire Preparedness to Direct Fire, resulting in significant administrative efficiencies. The B.C. Wildfire Service says this makes it difficult to compare current and future fire seasons to ones that occurred before this change.
The 2009/10 season was an outlier, because it included a mid-year budget due to an election. This provided the opportunity to increase the budget.
READ MORE: Full coverage of the wildfires in B.C.
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