Premier David Eby Directs $45 Million to Clear Wildfire Fuel and Evacuation Routes in 80 Towns

VICTORIA, BC — Premier David Eby and Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston announced the release of $45 million under the Community Resiliency Investment (CRI) program, providing direct operational funding to 80 regional municipalities and First Nations communities across the Southern Interior and Cariboo regions.

Protecting Rural Communities with Engineered Fireguards and Clear Escape Corridors

The funding packages provide up to $600,000 per local government to thin dense timber stands, clear brush within 100 meters of secondary highway evacuation corridors, and construct permanent 200-meter-wide shaded fuel breaks around high-risk towns including Williams Lake, Merritt, Quesnel, and Burns Lake. Provincial wildfire behavior modeling indicates that engineered fuel breaks slow crowning forest fires and provide safe access routes for structural firefighting crews and evacuating residents.

Premier Eby affirmed that protecting communities from increasingly intense wildfires requires proactive mitigation and clear evacuation routes.

Union of BC Municipalities and BC Wildfire Service Support

The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) praised the stable grant funding for enabling multi-year wildland-urban interface planning.

BC Wildfire Service command staff highlighted that treated fuel breaks dramatically improve containment success during severe wildfire weather.

Mechanical Fuel Clearing Schedule

Forestry machine mulching and fuel reduction crews will begin field operations in October 2026.