It looks like the weather is going to cost B.C. taxpayers dearly this year, but the provincial government is still only taking baby steps when it comes to dealing with what appears to be the chaotic effects of changes in climate patterns.
We may be on our way to a record forest fire season, rain levels have dropped significantly and heat records are being set by the dozens. The combination of a hot, dry forest combined with what could be serious water shortages sets the stage for what could be an explosive summer.
An average year will see the government spend about $100 million fighting forest fires, even though the annual budgeted amount is set at about $63 million. But with the two hottest months still to come for the most part, we’ve already passed that budget figure.
Costs could easily approach a half-billion dollars before the fire season is over, and that doesn’t include related costs that could total much bigger sums.
Premier Christy Clark, who is locked into getting the liquefied natural gas industry to set up shop in this province, at least provided a couple of clues recently that perhaps taking a closer look at weather patterns is inching up one of her priority lists.
Each year she sends “mandate letters” to her cabinet ministers, outlining the expectations for the year ahead. Mostly, they are about balancing the budget and running an efficient operation, the usual things.
But two ministers got special instructions this year. Forests and Lands Minister Steve Thomson is to analyze the impact of lower snowpacks and retreating glaciers on the province’s forests, and Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick is to perform a similar task, and make recommendations on how best to protect farmland in the face of these shifts in climate patterns.
Lower snowpacks? Retreating glaciers? Growing drought conditions? Water shortages? Temperatures hitting record highs?
At least the government appears to have woken up to the fact that something unusual is going on.
But the impact of these climate changes is not felt simply in the forests, and doesn’t end with the end of the forest fire season.
Stream and lake temperatures will likely continue to rise, with potentially devastating results for fish and local ecosystems. We can expect more flooding, and violent storms may result in landslides or the destabilization of land masses.
At the very least, this all translates into making a major hit on the provincial economy, which is reason alone for the government to start looking at doing more than simply drafting an analysis or two. I don’t offer any magical suggestions, but perhaps more resources should be allocated to start figuring out ways to deal with what could be a catastrophe in the waiting.
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The NDP doesn’t agree with the provincial ombudsman being asked to formally investigate the firings in 2012 of eight health ministry researchers, but the Opposition should be patting itself on the back for at least getting some kind of probe under way.
The NDP, particularly MLA Adrian Dix, has been hammering away at this disturbing story for months now and finally convinced the government to do something other than to simply offer a rather weak apology to those affected.
The NDP was pressing for a public inquiry, but the ombudsman’s powers match those of a public inquiry commissioner. He can subpoena witnesses and compel testimony under oath. Getting the dozen or so senior people in government — a number of them have since left for the private sector — to testify under oath is the key to finding the answers to why these firings occurred and who called the shots.
The downside of a public inquiry is that all witnesses can be assigned taxpayer-funded lawyers, who can tie up the proceedings endlessly by challenging testimony from other witnesses. A probe by the ombudsman can find answers much quicker, without being buried by lawyers’ briefs.
Take a bow, New Democrats.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC. He can be reached via email at [email protected].
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