Surprised and devastated.
That was West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund’s initial reaction to hearing about changes to the FireSmart program due to a lack of funding.
The FireSmart Community Funding and Supports (FCFS) program closed its intake application on Jan. 30, according to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM).
“To hear that the funding is abruptly not being replenished is really concerning for us,” said Brolund. “We know our community is no stranger to wildfire. We know the devastating effects that it can have.”
The FireSmart Program is a provincially-funded initiative to increase the awareness of community-based planning and acitivies to reduce the risk of wildfire. Brolund, along with Kelowna Fire Chief Dennis Craig and Lake Country Fire Chief Brent Penner, all echoed how important the FireSmart program has been to the Central Okanagan and beyond.
“I don’t want to speak on behalf of other municipalities, but the funding has made a significant difference in our wildfire preparedness and resiliency over the last several years,” Craig told Black Press Media. “It’s a very, very important program for the region, allowing us to actually get boots on the ground and do some very good proactive work.”
Penner added the program has been very successful in Lake Country, saying it’s allivated a lot of risks and hazards.
“We have a vast, vast experience with wildfire impacting our populations,” said Penner. “Regardless of the size of the community, the FireSmart initiative has been providing a lot of benefits for the Central Okanagan as a whole… it’s given us an avenue for property owners and people to actually clean up their neighbourhood… of any shrubbery or consumable material.”
“Firesmart is a great program,” said Brolund, who added the principles from the program have scienfically proven that they work and have saved people’s homes. “We’ve worked closely with the province over the last decade to use grant funding that they provide to deliver an ever-escalating and improving Firesmart program in our community and they’ve been great partners.”
According to UBCM, applications for FireSmart funding closed on Jan. 30 and reopened on Feb. 2 “with a competitive adjudicated grant process.”
When the FireSmart program started, Craig explained that communities would have to show and describe the need for the funds. He’s anxious it’s going to go back to that.
“What’s worrisome now is there’s not enough money to go around to every single community participating, ” said Craig. “So there is going to be some communities not receiving any funding potentially.”
Brolund added he remembers when the program was able to move away from competitive funding over a decade ago, which was a relief that communities didn’t have to compete for funding. Now it could go back to that.
“It’s going to limit communities and what they could actually do as far as mitigating and bringing down those hazards,” said Penner. “We really do think that the thought process of spending money on prevention would be better than just solely on response. I think it can definitely, the way I read it and kind of look into it, it could definitely affect the smaller communities more than the bigger communities.”
This comes after the District of Lake Country applied for up to $400,000 in FireSmart funding for 2026, back in its Jan. 20 council meeting.
“Just because we have a grant that’s in the process that’s been approved, doesn’t mean that we might get a surprise or how things would change. If there’s no money, there’s no money, right?” said Penner.
“We fully understand that there are different priorities and competing priorities, but this funding was actually being put to use,” added Craig. “It was making a difference in communities and resiliency.”
UBCM stated the following changes have also been made due to the lack of funding:
* Fuel management and impacts from wildfire will no longer be funded;
* Eligible FireSmart activities were modified;
* All funding requests will now also be limited to one-year projects.
Over the last five years, the province has incrementally increased funding, given funding out more than once a year, and has reduced red tape, which have been encouraging steps for the program, said Brolund.
“These were all really positive improvements that improved the delivery of FireSmart in our communities,” said Brolund. “That’s why the situation we find ourselves in today is a little bit shocking, and we’re still trying to understand it.”
The wildfire hazard in the Central Okanagan is never going to go away, said Brolund, adding “we need to learn to live alongside of it.”
“Part of that learning to live alongside [wildfire] is contained in the FireSmart principles and the work that is done under this grant funding,” said Brolund. “Literally hundreds of millions of dollars is spent reacting to wildfire events when they devastate our communities. We want to use a tiny fraction of that to deliver our FireSmart programs with the possibility of minimizing some of that impact.”
While the news was unexpected and there is worry for the program’s future, all three fire chiefs say local FireSmart programs will remain at the status quo.
“It doesn’t mean we’re going to stop the program,” said Craig. “We’ve built our program around some different funding models in different ways. We’ll still be able to get the core principles out and we’ll just have to work with our city officials and counterparts if the funding does dry up as to what that looks like.”
“This news is very, very fresh at this moment in time, but it’s not something that is impacting us at this point tomorrow,” added Penner. “Obviously, we’d like to see the program continue because for us and for every other community out there.”
In lieu of this, UBCM president Cori Ramsey is asking for B.C. Premier David Eby to make renewing the FireSmart funding a priority while encouraging local governments and First Nations to write about the benefits they’ve gained from the program.
In a response to a request for comment, B.C. Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar said, “2025 was one of the worst wildfire years on record for Canada. However, the wildfire mitigation work that we’ve done in B.C. helped us manage the threat.
“We’ve invested over $190 million in provincial wildfire risk reduction, through the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. and Crown Land Wildfire Risk Reduction,” Parmar added. “This is in addition to our investments in making the BC Wildfire Service a year-round operation, focused on prevention and mitigation alongside wildfire response.”
Parmar added that wildfire mitigation is a “shared responsibility” that is a “whole-of-society” approach.
“The threat of wildfire is growing and changing every day,” Parmar added. “This means it is time for us to review our programs, to ensure our work is most effective.”
Brolund, who had been one of the most forefront speakers in terms of wildfire prevention, especially since the 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire and Grouse Complex, said he’s ready to do this part to fix this issue.
“We are eager to work with the province to close that gap and get this back on track,” said Brolund.