Around $69,000 will be provided to the Town of Qualicum Beach to help develop a new Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan. (BC Wildfire Service)

By Jordan Davidson

wildfire safe

Provincial grant to assist Qualicum Beach with wildfire resiliency

Aug 26, 2023 | 6:25 AM

QUALICUM BEACH— Thanks to a grant from the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UCBM), the Town of Qualicum Beach has started the process of updating its Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan CWRP.

Their current CWRP has been in place since 2007, and $68,980 in grant money will be provided to modernize it, in light of climate change and the ever-changing demographics in the Oceanside region.

Qualicum Beach fire chief Peter Cornell said this money will guide the process of forming a new CWRP to better protect the community from wildfire risk.

“(The CWRP) is going to provide guidance to the Town on the best practices and principles for mitigating the fire and providing resiliency. The plan also looks at key areas under the seven firesmart disciplines, and provides guidance on how we can follow those disciplines and support in future wildfire initiatives.”

The province completed a regional hazard risk and vulnerability analysis in 2019, and identified wildland and urban interface fires as a top threat.

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Cornell said this new plan will reflect those changes.

“There’s a new form and template the province released around 2020, so the plan and the content has changed since 2007, and the community and the demographics, the climate, everything about our whole Island has changed since 2007, so it’s just updating everything.”

The money will also go to training, FireSmart educational materials, public outreach campaigns, and even a new mascot.

Cornell told NanaimoNewsNOW they’ll start the process by finding a consultant within the next month or two to take on the project, which needs to be completed within a 24-month window, according to the grant rules.

“It will be public outreach, stakeholders, staff, council. The consultant will then put all of that stuff together and come back with a plan and recommendations on what they see as areas that need improvement, what are some of our strengths and what are some of the things we should look at in the future to either mitigate or at least watch.”

He said they’ll hold public outreach sessions as they are developing the plan and looks forward to hearing from residents and community stakeholders about the updated CWRP.

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