Wildfire assistance needed

A Thompson-Nicola Regional District director wants the province to make it easier for rural residents impacted by wildfire to access financial assistance.

Tricia Thorpe, director for Electoral Area I, said she was joined by representatives from neighbouring regional districts for a Tuesday meeting with staff from the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.

Thorpe said they advocated for rural residents in their communities who can’t secure wildfire insurance for their properties, and aren’t able to claim Disaster Financial Assistance if their homes are damaged by wildfire.

Under the DFA program, the province must first recognize a disaster has occurred, then residents can apply for financial assistance. However, Thorpe said DFA is only available for non-insurable events — and wildfires are considered to be insurable events.

“What I'm trying to ask the province is that if you live outside of fire protection areas, that you be eligible for DFA funding for wildfire,” Thorpe said, adding it’s next to impossible for some rural residents to obtain wildfire insurance.

“If you can potentially get [insurance], it's cost prohibitive. … So people can't afford it, or they simply can't get it.”

Thorpe said she’s heard of numerous instances where people living in more remote locations have not been able to obtain wildfire insurance — including a Venables Valley resident impacted by this year’s Shetland Creek fire.

The aggressive blaze burned more than 20 structures in the Venables Valley, including at least six homes.

Thorpe said another rural resident who lives in Keefers — located in the lower Fraser Canyon area — was notified by their insurer upon moving to the area in 2021 that they no longer qualified for insurance. Then, the Kookipi Creek wildfire hit the region in 2023.

The TNRD director said the ministry told the regional district group that it would speak with insurance agencies, as the assumption is that everyone in the province is insurable and “somewhere, there’s a disconnect.”

Thorpe said this wasn’t a satisfactory response — but she admitted her ask to expand DFA for rural residents impacted by wildfire was “big.”

“It's going to take time, but it is something that has been ongoing for a number of years — and the province has been saying that they need more than anecdotes. They actually need that concrete piece of paper. We're bringing up the concrete pieces of paper,” she said.

“So let's have that discussion, and let's figure out, how we can make things work for our residents, particularly the really rural ones.”

Thorpe said she hopes to be part of the discussions going forward, as she wants to learn more about the situation and how to best advocate for her residents. She also said the next steps for her involve reaching out to more regional districts who can help advocate for better financial assistance.

The Fraser Valley Regional District, Cariboo Regional District and Columbia-Shuswap Regional District were part of Tuesday’s meeting, and Thorpe said she’s also been speaking to the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and the Central Okanagan Regional District.

“The more regional districts we have looking at this and advocating for this, the stronger our voices, and that’s how we’re going to help our rural residents,” she said.

Thorpe, whose own home was destroyed in the 2021 Lytton Creek wildfire, said amidst this complex conversation, she sees progress being made on the wildfire assistance front.

“From what I experienced in ’21 to what I saw happen in ’24 with the Shetland Creek wildfire, leaps and bounds,” she said. “We can still improve, and there’s a long way to go, but it is getting better.”