Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to a letter from the province responding to his question of why municipalities are being asked to pay for wildfire mitigation on crown land.
Simpson says the letter, from a senior bureaucrat, doesn’t even answer the question.
He says it instead talks about wildfire prevention being a shared responsibility of all levels of government, communities and individuals.
Simpson says he takes offence to that statement and calls it the ultimate in buck passing…
“We were not talking about managing our own land, we were not talking about, as Councillor Paull indicated, trying to work with private landowners to get them to do their work, we were talking about why do we have to take property taxpayers’ money and apply it to crown land outside the municipal boundary ?”
Councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenburg was also not thrilled with the response…
“When i read this letter it was like thank you very much now go away. I do believe a reply is needed with the piece of the report that we’re going to be finalizing shortly. I think they need to understand that we’re way past this and start to pay attention to what we’re actually asking for.”
Simpson says he will send another letter to the Minister.
The issue is also expected to come up at the upcoming Union of BC Municipalities convention.