 Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Bowen Maul, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness here on the territories of the Musqueam, the Squamish and the Slave to Peoples. As of this morning, there are 4,200 people on evacuation order and 65,000 people on evacuation alert. Over the last number of days, we have seen a positive trend as more communities downgrade from evacuation orders to evacuation alerts, which has allowed thousands of people to return to their communities. While this is great news, it also pains me to know that not everybody has been able to return home, and that tens of thousands of people continue to remain on alert, ready to leave their homes at a moment's notice. For the people who have lost their home, the last couple of weeks have been among the worst of their lives. My heart aches when I hear stories of what they've lost and how that has affected them. Please know that you are not alone. Your neighbors, your community, your province is here with you. And we will get through this together. The weather we experienced in the southern part of the province over the last number of days is a sign that we are slowly moving beyond the worst part of this wildfire season. But we must approach this with a balanced perspective. The rain provided our firefighters a chance to breathe, but we are still far from being in the clear. Wildfire activity has been exacerbated by the severe drought that we're experiencing across the province. 27 out of 34 drought basins are currently at level 4 or level 5, with level 5 being the most severe. While a handful of basins have ticked down a step, we have not experienced anywhere near the rainfall needed to see those levels come down in a significant way. And in the northern part of the province, they didn't see nearly the same level of rain as the southern and coastal regions. The northeastern regions are expected to continue to see unseasonably warm temperatures, smoke and strong winds. This has led to previously in control fires becoming out of control again and could lead to more extreme fire behaviour. With these factors in mind and on the advice of emergency management wildfire officials, I am extending the provincial state of emergency for an additional two weeks in case additional extraordinary powers to issue orders under the Emergency Program Act are required to respond. The nature and unpredictability of the wildfires that we are experiencing this year means that we all need to remain vigilant. We will continue to assess the situation and respond and adapt as needed. Next week, students will be returning to schools throughout B.C. For some families though the start of school won't be the same. Currently there are two public schools in areas under evacuation order and there are 14 public schools and three independent schools under evacuation alert. My colleagues in the ministry of emergency, pardon me, that's me, my colleagues in the ministry of education and child care are working closely with all wildfire impacted school districts to ensure that they have alternate plans for each of their students should their school not be able to open. This may involve supporting students to start school in a neighbouring district, moving schools to another building to start their learning or moving to online learning through one of the provincial online schools. The province is supporting school districts to ensure students, teachers and staff are getting the supports that they need to cope with the impacts of the wildfires. For example, the North Okanagan Shuswat school district is providing additional counseling services for students, teacher and staff recognizing that some of them have lost homes due to the wildfires. I'd like to thank the leadership and staff, the leadership of the staff, school districts within fire affected communities who are working tirelessly to support students and their communities. During this time it is incredibly important that we all come together and look after one another. Wildfires can impact our mental health in vastly different ways. The province, health authority and other agencies are working to connect people to vital mental health services should they need them. If you need mental health supports or just want someone to talk to please call the BC mental health support line for free at 310-6789. They are available to help 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, youth aged 12 to 24 can access virtual supports on the BC Foundry app and Foundry Virtual at the website is foundrybc.ca. So for clarity again, youth aged 12 to 24 can access virtual supports on the Foundry BC app and Foundry Virtual at foundrybc.ca. I cannot understate how important these tools are. If you need someone to talk to please do not hesitate. Before I turn it over to Minister Ralston I'd like to stress one more time that we are still in peak wildfire season. The rain that we experienced over the last couple of days has brought some relief in the south but the wildfire season continues. People across the province particularly in the north must stay vigilant and be prepared to evacuate if needed. So please continue to be prepared. Have an emergency plan and a grab-and-go kit ready for you, your family and your pets. Pre-register for emergency support services at ess.gov.bc.ca. Your First Nation or local authority will provide information on evacuation routes and evacuation reception centers where you can access emergency support services. And if you are under an evacuation order you must leave the area immediately. This helps protect your community, your family, yourself and first responders. Thank you I'd like to now turn it over to Minister Ralston. Good morning everyone, I'm Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. Honored to be again today on the traditional territory of the Musgrams, Glamourish and Slavery to his people. There are currently 422 wildfires burning across British Columbia. 12 of those are what's called fires of note. Those are fires that are especially visible or a threat to public safety. While the cooler recent cooler temperatures have been a welcome change from the heat we endured earlier this month, the BC Wildfire Service continues to work continuously to bring these fires under control. Milder weather and rain in the southern half of the province will allow crews to make good progress in the coming days. Today the northwest is braced for strong winds and the northeast experiencing more hot and dry conditions. We have shifted some crews and aircraft to the to the north in anticipation of this shift. Let me once again thank our brave fire personnel as well as our very welcome out of province personnel from Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Ontario, as well as from the Canadian armed forces. As we approach the final long weekend of the summer I also want to remind everyone to continue to be cautious and vigilant. Though most wildfires during the summer months are a lightning cause the majority of wildfires that occur in shoulder seasons are caused by humans. We ask everyone to do their part in preventing human cause fire starts by following all fire bans. Open burning including campfires is prohibited across most of BC particularly as ongoing elevated drought conditions in much of British Columbia increase the potential for wildfires. In recognition of the dry hot conditions and elevated winds we have seen in the northwest category one campfires will again be prohibited. You'll have to pay attention and please do to your local prohibitions and restrictions as regional weather will be variable as we transition into the fall. I'd like now to focus on drought conditions in British Columbia. In the south I know many people have been relieved to see some rain in recent days but the short-term rain we are seeing in the south does provide some relief and areas that experienced rain last week and this week may see degrees decreases in their drought level. However while these rains are welcome at this stage they are not big enough significant enough to change the trajectory of the ongoing drought conditions here in the province. As Minister Ma mentioned although we have seen some slight improvements in a few regions the drought in many watersheds continues to slowly get worse and more severe. Right now nearly 80 percent of British Columbia is at drought level four or five. Five is the most severe drought classification possible. Several factors have caused high-risk province-wide drought conditions this year including less rain than usual over the last 12 months and the early snow melt this past spring. At this point we need several inches or more rainfall over an extended period to help alleviate our drought conditions. However significant rainfall doesn't typically come until the fall meaning we can anticipate drought conditions to persist in the province for the next while. It is a serious situation. It is likely that an increasing number of people, communities, First Nations, businesses and wildfires, wildlife will face challenges. That's why we're asking people to conserve water. Access to water by food producers is crucial for food security for all of us. Water supply is also vital for firefighting and for the operations of many services and businesses. We are working hard to make sure people have the water they need. Right now there are four targeted temporary protection orders in places to help restore water flow levels and protect the local fish populations. These orders do not impact and let me repeat do not impact water use for people's personal use, market vegetables, fruit trees or livestock. These decisions are made as an absolutely last resort because we recognize the very real impact this has on farmers and businesses. Ahead of these orders the Ministry of Forest sent letters describing the situation and asking water licensees in the area to conserve water voluntarily. In addition to letters to licensees public information meetings were held in affected areas. Ministry staff also met with local First Nations to collaborate and discuss drought response options. Since June of 2023 Ministry staff have held bi-weekly drought meetings with representatives from local provincial and federal governments to undertake a collaborative approach to BC's drought conditions. And if the current drought outlook continues the province may need to issue additional fish population protection orders. We are doing this conservation work to preserve drinking water and water for our food supply and the health of fish and animals. The province is stepping up to help farmers and ranchers which with what is a very tough summer that's understood and recognized. Many farmers are already seeing challenges from wildfires and drought and many stepped up to voluntarily conserve water. Because of the collective effort of our communities we were able to delay the need for temporary protection orders. That's why we're working actively with the federal government for ag recovery funding to help disaster impacted producers recover and resume farming operations and we will have more details on this support coming soon. As well we're working to secure more feed for livestock through the access to feed program. We know that orders of this nature significantly impact water users and we are continuously monitoring impacted waterways for rainfall and water flows. Thank you to everyone in British Columbia who has been voluntarily reducing their water use and those who are adhering to the water restrictions and temporary protection orders. All of this makes a positive difference. Let me turn this back to Minister Maul. Thank you. Thank you Minister. In addition to Minister Ralston and myself we have on the line Cliff Chapman director of provincial operations with the BC Wildfire Service Peter Brock executive director of regional operations with the Ministry of Emergency Management Climate Readiness. Connie Chapman director of water management with the Ministry of Forests. Dave Campbell head of the River Forecast Center and Mark Raymond executive director of the Agricultural Resource Division with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Happy to take some questions. Thank you. As a reminder for reporters in the phone please press star one to enter the queue. The star one to ask a question. For media in the room please line up at the microphone provided and wait to be called. Please make sure to provide your full name and media will be limited to one question and one follow-up. We will take questions from media in the room first. Our first question is from Abigail Turner ctv. Hi my first question is about the drought conditions. What happens if we see another dry fall? Do we have plans in place? I know we're counting on rain this fall to kind of ease the drought conditions but what happens if we don't see that rain? I'll start and then pass it over to Minister Ralston. We may engage a River Forecast Center or Connie Chapman to provide response as well. I will say that this is it is a concern for us that the drought season could last beyond this calendar year and into the following year. It is one of the reasons why we have been imploring communities and water users to take voluntary measures to conserve water now. It is a very serious situation that British Columbia has not faced before and it is absolutely necessary that people change their mindset about water here in British Columbia as a result of the impacts that we're seeing due to climate change. Minister Ralston can speak more specifically to this. Thank you very much. As Minister Maul has said the the drought conditions in British Columbia are something that we have not seen before. We're of course not alone in this drought conditions in North America. Indeed I was reading this morning in India they've had the least amount of rain in August since 1901. So people will obviously see the connection to to climate change. Here in British Columbia we have a very well developed internal system of managing a drought and preparing for drought and the contingency plans of for events that you speak of one hopes that they don't happen are developed. So but I'll turn it over perhaps to Peter Brock who might be able to add a little bit more about the operation of those plans. Yeah hi Peter Brock, Executive Director for Prudential and Regional Operations for Mercy Imagine Climate Readiness. So should mention that we have been engaged with communities from the start early in the spring discussing drought as a concern. Communities are aware of that concern. We've worked together to try to implement tools that would better serve communities to work through the drought season. Examples of some of those tools are really encouraging and supporting communities and updating their emergency response scarcity or drought plans to ensure that they're better positioned to look at restrictions and look at public education campaigns to really support that sort of unified effort through all levels of government both local provincial on trying to address drought. We've looked at going into communities specifically working with them to help them with their emergency plans for drought and continues support and monitor their requirements in that regard. So maybe just to take on to the minister's comments there we do take drought very seriously. We are not out of the woods yet and so we'll remain vigilant and continue to provide those supports. Thank you. We also have Connie Chapman who's the Acting Director of the Water Management Branch. Perhaps if you wish to add any further comments Connie please go ahead. Thank you Minister Ralston. Just to add into the space of that as Minister Ralston said drought is serious and so is Peter. We will continue to monitor it throughout the fall and into the winter and action will continue to occur throughout the entire season in regards to preparation for the next real drought season that normally starts after fresh up. Thank you. Do we have the environment minister? Did he call in George Heyman? Is he on the line? He's not okay. I'm not sure if this can be answered then it's about the Joffrey Lake situation. Is anyone able to comment on that situation? I don't have an answer. I'm aware of the situation that you mentioned. You're right it does fall within the jurisdiction of the Minister of the Environment. So we can follow up with you and get you a more detailed answer on that question. Thank you. We are going to take questions from the line now. We have Keith Pulderly from Gobi. Go ahead Keith. Hi so the focus of the briefing seems to be more on drought than fire so I'll ask on that. New York Times in the last few days just published a huge investigative piece on the groundwater situation particularly in Western United States and found alarmingly low aquifers and groundwater. More is coming is being taken out than is going in. I'm just wondering how be and Mr. Wilson you mentioned this is not a DC problem it's everywhere in the rest of North America. How does DC's drought situation compare to say the West United States which seems to be in a very perilous situation? Thank you. Let me just give a beginning of an answer and then I'll perhaps turn it over to honey Chapman. The reason for passing the Water Sustainability Act and it worked its way through the legislature and became a law in 2016 was to and many of the provisions have taken some time to be proclaimed enforced but are now enforced was a forward-looking view about water management and the prospects of drought into the future. So we have a good strong legislative framework to to deal with the challenges. One of the aspects of the Water Sustainability Act is the requirement for those people who access aquifers by means of wells and other methods to register so that there can be a detailed inventory for for future management purposes and that's one of the principal purposes of the act and we've had some success in encouraging people to to register and that enables a further bigger profile of the aquifers in British Columbia for future planning but perhaps at this point then in terms of any detail about where or how British Columbia might compare with the western United States I'll turn it over to honey Chapman if she's able to add anything further on that point. Thank you minister Relfden. So just to start you know BC has taken a proactive approach in regards to mapping aquifers as best as possible with the relevant data that is currently at hand and looking at future monitoring opportunities within that space we do have the groundwater monitoring well system in which the aquifers are monitored on a regular basis to look for those changes I think one thing that we need to keep in mind is that most things in nature are connected so our aquifers are connected to our streams and they're connected within the watersheds to each other and so is the hydrologic cycle and so what we have to be cognizant of is that water flows and changes movement between aquifers and streams and is really reliant on that recharge from our rainfall and that rainfall as we are currently seeing we haven't had much of it over the last 12 months as minister Relfden said and so often we see patterns throughout areas where if one area is seeing that sort of pattern we may also see it and so this is where that vigilance comes in in regards to monitoring the systems that we have in place but also with some of that behavioral change in regards to how we view and utilize the water within the province and enacting the Water Sustainability Act to show that good stewardship of the resource thank you Keith do you have a follow-up yeah if I recall when the Water Sustainability Act worked its way to the legislature some of the concerns voiced at a time where were there going to be enough resources allocated to make sure this act functioned in the way it was designed so the minister mentioned registration for example is there is there evidence there's a lot of uptake and voluntary registration and is there any enforcement powers being contemplated going forward if the situation seems to be deteriorating so rapidly let me let me begin an answer and then i'll ask crony to give the specific statistics i think we've been very fortunate in that many people in the province recognize the importance of water and the need to follow the the regulation that's been put in place to register their groundwater use there it has been a work in progress the initially the regulation that required registration was delayed three years from 2016 to 2019 and then delayed a further three years there's been a widespread notice and consultation whether it's with community groups whether i think there's been a quarter of a million messages of various types through various media advertisements and in some cases in important water restricted areas or drought prone areas there's been personal visits by ministry staff to water users encouraging them to register so there are there are those who have yet to register and we're optimistic that the the circumstances now will encourage people to register there are mechanisms for enforcement that is an absolute last resort but there there have been a few enforcement actions taking place in the province very very few but so far i think we've enjoyed the confidence of the public and the support of the public and recognizing that the public view of water as an unlimited resource infinitely into the future has dramatically changed and will continue to change as as the climate changes so Connie Chapman may wish to add to that. Thank you minister Ralston so just building off what minister Ralston said as we did see over the last six years a number of individuals 7,711 applications come in in regards to existing use groundwater it's critical that we understand that usage to be able to have the understanding of what's going on in regards to withdrawal and demand within those watersheds we are also seeing new use applications come in for new groundwater use. These applications provide a substantial amount of data in regards to well information withdrawal information and location and helps in regards to that stewardship of the water resource throughout the province but also for that future planning and the ability to understand the different cycles of how the water is used throughout thank you. Our next question is from Jane Scripnik Black Press go ahead Jane. I think it's for me more in common I'm not sure. My question I think it's for minister Ralston and then Cliff Chapman but as BC is possibly moving beyond the worst parts of the wildfire season and heading toward the end how does that affect the BC wildfire service this year as the organization has moved into year-round operations? Let me begin and then I'll turn it over to Cliff. Certainly after every wildfire season there is a process of evaluation reflecting upon what took place during the season and I want to add that the season is not over there are several hundred active wildfires in the province at this point so we're looking forward to the end of the season there will be that internal review given that this has been a very very tough season including two deaths of firefighters it's one that will be scrutinized and and reflected upon in order to better plan for the following year. One thing that the government did in the last budget cycle was take the the core of BC wildfire service which was year-round and dramatically expand the number of full-time year-round people there that's to assist in in planning and developing responses into the future and that's something that took place this year and we'll reflect upon that and into the next budget cycle as well as to whether that worked in the way that we wanted or whether there needs to be further changes there but that's a matter that we'll take advice on from the BC wildfire service on their evaluation of this year's program so maybe I could turn it over now to Cliff Chaplin. Thank you minister and thank you for the question I think minister you've covered it quite well I'll dive a little bit deeper into a couple pieces that were we're already starting to plan out what the fall is going to look like specifically around really the other pillars of emergency management so we're continuing and we'll continue to invest heavily into the prevention program prevention and mitigation whether that's fuel reduction work around communities I think a significant increase in cultural and prescribed fire trying to eliminate the fuels both in the fall but also as we transition into spring 2024 so that we have you know more community protection utilizing fire in a time when we have more control over it unlike you know the challenging conditions that we faced in July and August the big one for me is recovery and recovery really has two streams on it there's the actual recovery of the land base communities that have to obviously go through their recovery process with the devastating impacts of fires this season as well as where we've put you know machine guards in around all of these fires I saw an estimate the other day somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 kilometers of machine guards have been pushed by our organization this summer we need to go and rehabilitate that land we need to try to get it back to be whole again in some areas in other areas we'll leave them as strategic fuel breaks for next season and years to come the other part of recovery that is super important to the organization is the human recovery as minister Ralston has mentioned this fire season has been extremely heavy for the public in BC and as well as for BC wildfire service as an organization we have not experienced some of the things that we have experienced this year and our organization and I'm very proud of the people in it they continue to show up we're now turning the corner into September we got a little bit of rain in the south which I think is is something to be celebrated after a very challenging last four months however as we've heard on the briefing today and I'll just go a little bit deeper the north is not not getting rain they are not getting any rain in the next 48 hours what they are going to receive is significant winds and as we talked about at the last briefing there are some fires on the landscape up there that we were talking about on these media briefings back in April May and June as well as some additional fires over the last couple of months that are going to get that wind on them over the next 48 hours and we are suspecting or we're forecasting those winds to be between 40 and 60 kilometers an hour that's a significant wind after seven days of drying in the north so I just don't want to lose focus on the fact that the north is not experiencing the same weather that we're experiencing in the south right now so I just wanted to get that out there additionally in terms of the fall and all hazards and and the continuation of our evolution as a service we will be you know making sure that our people are looked after making sure they get the supports they need to reintegrate back to their base jobs as well as making sure they're available and ready for potential deployments to other hazards that this province may need us for it's something that we've been focusing on for the last 12 months trying to build that organizational structure that allows us to operate more holistically 12 months of the year we're we're on that path we have availability we did respond to some other hazards this spring and we suspect that we may be asked to respond to some hazards this fall and as we go into the winter so lots of work underway and and again for us big priority around recovery both landscape recovery and and human recovery so that we are ready and able to respond to what comes next Lauren sorry about that do you have a follow-up I do yes earlier minister ralston mentioned that in the shoulder season the majority of wildfires are human caused and asked the public to be careful and then in the shoe swap a number of community members have been taking training to help with the wildfire fight how much is the province or bc wildfire service looking to engage the community in the coming months to both be better educated around wildfires and maybe even encouraging back training perhaps I can start on an answer there one of the things that bc wildfire service has developed over the recent fire seasons beginning in 2017 is a different approach to community response to wildfires and there is a program within the ministry the community response network where members of the public who want to help who have expertise or equipment to offer are given training and learn how to that they might contribute by fitting into the command structure of the overall fight against any particular wildfire so certainly that's something that the service welcomes it is an evolving standard in the sense that each each fire season brings new lessons and and bc wildfire service I would say is a is a learning organization in the sense that they are responsive to public concerns and evolve their their response based on on the experience of any individual season so that's certainly something that is is taking place in terms of the the difference between lightning starts and and human starts that's statistical I'll get cliff to answer in terms of what's the basis of that study and and how we might better prepare in the in the months that stand immediately in front of us thank you minister I appreciate the question around around the community's interest and the continuation of that interest as we go into the non-response months of fire season which we're not there yet I just stress that again we're not there yet but first off I just want to thank all the communities that we've been president through the course of the last four months this fire season we have been met generally speaking with very open arms our staff feel appreciated in those communities they feel appreciated when they have to go get gas or food or whatever it is they need to do in those local communities we cannot do it without you and we appreciate the support that's been there on top of that and it was actually ahead of this fire season that we had started to explore additional response capacity for bc that included a direct relationship with the cattleman's association of bc with first nation emergency services society to work with first nation communities to stand up response resources we have an industry agreement where we work with contractors to ensure that we have equipment that can be signed up as well as additional human capacity that are familiar with working in the forest and they're an amazing asset at understanding what the fuel conditions are what the terrain looks like and they they live and work in in the forest so and then on top of that we had just kicked off what we're calling the cooperative community response project which is a project that is essentially to bring on community members that are willing to take a very sort of low level of training or a basic level of training to ensure safety and general firefighting tactics and then we can sign those community members up ideally through a local fire department or local fire brigade as we've seen in the shoe swap as well as what we've seen on the ross more lake fire and other fires across the province this is something that we know we need to and want to expand we want to work with local governments we want to work with fire departments across bc as well as the general public that are willing and want to support response should their communities see an impact from a wildfire in the future so we're going to expand that program we're going to look to put some some more parameters around it so that communities know how to how to access it and and what it's going to mean now initially we're talking about response but those partnerships with the cattleman's first nation emergency services industry and and many others that i'm not mentioning that relationship is not just a response relationship it is a relationship across the four pillars of emergency management as it pertains to fire so we work together on preparedness how many resources do we need where how do we work together on that response obviously as we've seen and we're continuing to learn and evolve but importantly also in prevention and mitigation cultural and prescribed fire is can't be done alone we want to do it in partnership with communities first nations and local governments and then as well with the recovery whether again that's community recovery or landscape recovery so partnerships is the way we need to move forward as it pertains to wildfire in this province we will need to continue to work together to get to the best outcomes we can for the public of BC our next question is from Andrew McLeod the day go ahead Andrew yeah hi question from minister Ralston uh you were talking about temporary fish protection orders earlier and you described them as a last resort my understanding is the water sustainability act also allows making those decisions on curtailment through seniority what's known as the first-in-time first-in-right or fit for process so I'm wondering why you want the fish protection order route instead of the fit for route thank you thank you Andrew the first-in-time first-in-right as well as a well-established legal principle for water usage it's basically as it sounds if you're the first user to apply in your license you get priority over subsequent registrants and some of the water licenses go back decades if not many many decades so that that principle is there what the fish protection order section of the water sustainability act gives authority to override the ordinary law there it's an extraordinary remedy and that's the basis the legal basis on which a fish protection order is made so it it gives authority to override the way in which ordinarily water usage would be allocated and that's that's the legal authority to do what is done and you do have a follow-up yeah absolutely I understand that that's the legal authority for doing it I guess the question is why like I my understanding is it allows for people who are growing market vegetables or who are raising livestock to continue using water and in particular it means people who are raising forage crops have to stop so I guess I'm wondering what you would say to somebody who's growing forage crops he says well hey we're part of the food chain as well why are you cutting our use sometimes used as you say that that goes back decades or even a century why are you cutting that over more recent users the the process by which the decision to issue a fish protection order is made is a lengthy one and indeed at we're now most of the water basins are at as we've heard and we said at level four and five but typically in the process at when drought levels reach level three staff engages with the community and with water users to begin to bring awareness of that drought level and the prospect of that drought level increasing and encourages voluntary use and voluntary reductions of water use so there's a fairly I guess a ladder of engagement that takes place and so that that that begins the process there also as you heard a community level water committees that involve municipalities the federal government first nations and industrial and commercial users and that would include to certainly farmers and that so there is a process of engaging people in that process and then the there is science which monitors stream flow levels and their impact upon fish and it's only as a as a last resort to maintain a stream flow level or river flow level that will enable the fish population to survive is there a consideration given to the remedy of a fish protection order so the interests of agriculture are are are obviously expressly considered and that's how the decision goes forward so it's a it's a fairly generally we've been able to achieve these results without the need to move to orders but the level of drought this year in some water basins has been completely unprecedented and that decision has been necessary that's all the questions we have today that concludes the availability thank you every for for joining thank you