Ha7lh kwakwayel.
[Witness speaks in his native language]...B.C. First Nations Forestry Council.
I would like to thank you for bringing us this unique opportunity to discuss the challenges that face the forest products industry as a whole.
I would like to particularly talk about the mountain pine beetle crisis that affects British Columbia at this time. This poses an immediate threat to 103 aboriginal communities and directly affects their lives. There is the need for pre-emptive actions.
This crisis of our forests has been given attention on an international level by Mr. David Porter in Bali last December, so it is starting to get to that level of information. Mr. Porter was in Ottawa last December, and unfortunately the Ottawa meetings produced fine words with the minister of forests, but little else. The budget completely ignored the crisis that exists in British Columbia and that is now being deemed the biggest natural disaster in British Columbia's history.
It is hoped that this committee can raise the alarm bells and generate some action in the face of what is happening in British Columbia. Please make no mistake about this: lives as well as livelihoods are on the line in the coming months, and the long-term survival of entire communities is at stake. I'm talking about schools and homes.
The area we're talking about is 103 aboriginal communities with about 100,000 people. They're scattered across an immense area of the interior of British Columbia, and it has turned out to be a huge tinderbox of dead and dying pine forests. The aboriginal communities are starting to live in fear, as the fast-approaching fire season starts in June and ends in September.
The area we're talking about covers 13 million hectares of land, which is bigger than the land mass of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick combined. If you want to take a look at one country in the world, take a look at Greece; it's about the size of Greece.
The last geographic comparison is particularly apt, because the conditions of our dead forests have potential to create fires that would completely eclipse those that ravaged Greece last year.
I don't know whether you had a chance to take a look at the pictures of what happened in the Okanagan about five or six years ago. There were flames 100 to 200 feet tall when they were burning those thousand or so homes in the Okanagan. This will be twice to three times that problem; it is going to be huge.
The damage cannot be reversed. Even containment will be extremely difficult. For now, our priority is survival. How can we survive a forest fire with this new reality? Ironically, the lack of forest fires through the years, together with the high temperatures as a result of global warning, has created a pine beetle crisis. Indeed, a fire will be one of the ways in which the forest will be able to begin to heal itself, but it will also be able to destroy communities and lives.
The problem is that 103 of our first nation communities are in the midst of the fire zones. There are 300 reserves that require a minimum of two-kilometre wide firebreaks cleared around them to prevent the fires from simply obliterating them. Fires move quickly. The majority of our communities have schools, houses, and community buildings, and they are all in remote areas. An evacuation will be difficult, if not impossible.
We need firebreaks and proper evacuation plans. Achieving both firebreaks and a plan will cost some money. We estimate right now that it's going to cost about $1,000 per hectare, but we're also looking at 135,041 hectares surrounding 300 aboriginal communities. So we're looking at $135 million.
The risks have been identified for the last few years now. When the last federal election was held, we thought we would get some funding. The Liberal government at that time had already given $100 million to help B.C. address the beetle crisis, and it made a campaign promise to provide $1 billion dollars more. The Conservatives matched the election pledge of $1 billion. We took them at their word. B.C. Premier Campbell's new relationship program has identified 20% of the $1 billion, or $200 million, that will be transferred to first nations to deal with the crisis that exists today. We continue to work with the B.C. government, but we are falling short of what is required for our crisis.
The Conservative government, unlike the previous Liberal government, is refusing to transfer money directly to the aboriginal communities. They are selectively choosing different projects they want to fund. An example would be an airport expansion; even though it's probably needed for the community, it does not help our aboriginal community in the crisis we're facing with the pine beetle.
First nations have seen little money. The latest figures provided by the Department of Natural Resources indicate that less than $5 million has been spent or committed since 2006 on affected first nation communities.
We know what the threats are, and we know what the challenges are. What we need are the resources to help our communities, and our homes and schools, and our elders and children.
Huychexwa. I thank you for your time.