(Submitted/Government of Saskatchewan)

By Nigel Maxwell

Public safety

RMs apply heat on government over fire ban protocols

Mar 11, 2021 | 2:00 PM

While the 2021 forest fire season is still months away, the topic of fire bans, and when they are being implemented, was among the topics discusses during this week’s Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention.

A resolution put forward by the Rural Municipality (RM) of Duck Lake, with support from the RMs of Buckland and Prince Albert, calls on SARM to lobby the provincial government to implement bans in specific areas, where the surrounding municipality has previous implemented a fire ban due to dry and hazardous conditions.

The safety issue that arises is the potential for preventable forest fires, because people are still being allowed fires in the forest area.

“This is unacceptable. The RM does not want to control the forest, we would just like forestry to follow our fire ban policy in the forest during extreme conditions. We do not implement fire bans lightly,” a statement from the RM of Duck Lake said.

RM of Buckland reeve Don Fyrk told paNOW the RM has not yet had a need to put its own bans in place as of yet, instead following the lead of the province.

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“And it’s been working out good for us but you always get the odd person that goes in there, and not just a little fire,” he said.

Response from the Ministry

According to a statement provided to paNOW by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, the Province actively monitors the fire risk in provincial parks, forests and crown lands and restricts burning in these areas when the fire risk is high.

“The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency will be meeting with its stakeholders to inform them of municipal fire ban concerns and will discuss approaches to strengthening fire bans in the province,” the statement said.

The SARM convention was held virtually this year due to the pandemic and wrapped up on Wednesday.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell