The Cariboo Regional District will be asking for more funding for its 14 volunteer fire departments.
They’ll be applying for up to $40,000 for each fire department through the Province of BC’s Volunteer and Composite Fire Departments Equipment and Training grant.
CRD Manager of Communications Gerald Pinchbeck said this funding can be used for small hand tools, personal protection equipment, and instructional fire fighting training.
“We accessed this program last year to purchase similar equipment. Each year there is a variety of old tools and expiring equipment that we (CRD) that we have to replace.” Pinchbeck said, “This funding helps us do that and reduce the impacts to taxpayers to keep our fire departments with the equipment that they need and make sure that it’s up to date.”
Pinchbeck said the wait time for funding approval is typically a three to six month wait period.
“This is one of the grant programs that does have a shorter turnaround time and the Cariboo Regional District typically knows going into the final adoption of our budgets whether or not we get that funding.”
This year the CRD successfully obtained $358,000 for a variety of equipment which helped reduced the costs of operating the department to the communities they serve.
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