qathet Regional District FireSmart Program Continues in 2022
The qathet Regional District (qRD) is pleased to announce the return of the Regional FireSmart Program for 2022.
This is the sixth consecutive year of the Regional FireSmart Program. With funding support from the Province of BC and Union of BC Municipalities’ Community Resiliency Investment Fund, the qRD is able to continue to offer education, training, and planning with the goal of mitigating the negative impacts from wildfires in our community.
Over the past three years, the FireSmart Program has helped hundreds of residential property owners throughout all areas of the qRD with free FireSmart property advice and has provided over $35,000 in rebates.
The 2022 FireSmart program will see the same successful initiatives implemented in previous years and hopes that the number of residents utilizing the program continues to increase. “The FireSmart program saw great success in 2021”, said qRD’s Manager of Emergency Services, Ryan Thoms. “We saw residents spending more time at home, making FireSmart improvements to their properties and we were able to assist them in doing that.”
Residential property owners are encouraged to request a free FireSmart assessment for their property. Property owners may be eligible for a rebate of up to $500 for any FireSmart improvements made. Rebate submission deadline is November 15, 2022.
qathet Regional District’s FireSmart program is looking for champions to promote FireSmart in their neighbourhoods. Champions will receive free wildfire hazard assesment training and may be eligible to receive funding for neighbourhood scale events such as a FireSmart debris chipper day.
People living near forested areas need to be aware of the threat of wildfire, and actions they can take to make their properties FireSmart. Residents interested in information on how to make FireSmart improvements to their properties are encouraged to contact the qRD office or Regional FireSmart Coordinator, Marc Albert directly at [email protected].
For more information, please visit qathet.ca.
