County council to evaluate how fire ban areas are determined

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wheatland County council has directed administration to bring forward a report on fire bans to a future Committee of the Whole meeting. 

Discussion suggesting the report was introduced to council during the Aug. 13, regular meeting of council by Coun. Tom Ikert. 

Ikert suggested it would be prudent for the county to evaluate whether there would be merit in developing a way to declare segmented or isolated fire bans within the county, instead of implementing a blanketing, county-wide ban, for situational consideration. 

“At the time of the fire ban that was put on county wide, the peas on my property were three feet high, green, the canola across the field was in full bloom, green, there was no way that anything on the west side of the county could have burnt … you would have been unable to start a fire without maybe 100 gallons of gasoline,” he said.  “I understand that we have a massively big county, things are incredibly dry on the east side of the county, but we put these fire bans on and we forget that this impacts business people. You put a fire ban on, and if you’re selling firewood, your business is done because you can’t have a fire.”

He explained he brought the issue forward, suggesting there must be a better way to restrict fire use within the county such that if there is little risk in some areas compared to others, low risk areas are not penalized. 

Michael Bourgon, manager of emergency and fire services for Wheatland County, explained the county is currently under a fire advisory, as opposed to a full fire ban.

“Initially when we put this in place, there was a lot of fires going on up north in Jasper, there were a lot of resources that were being used,” said Bourgon. “That is some of the things we take into account, not necessarily just what we have, like how dry it is, we had no rain in the forecast at that point in time. Through our bylaw, we do discuss it with all the fire chiefs and unanimously, everybody wanted to put (the ban) into place.”

Bourgon explained the fire ban lasted roughly a week before it was reduced to an advisory, which allowed private residences and campgrounds to be able to operate fire pits and barbeques. Under a fire advisory, permit burning and fireworks remain prohibited. 

Regarding the motion for administration to bring a report to the Committee of the Whole, Reeve Amber Link requested that administration include information regarding how the process of determining and establishing fire bans works, and how fire risk is analyzed. 

The motion to return a report to the Committee of the Whole was passed by council unanimously following discussion.