With the wildfire crisis going on in Fort McMurray many have been critical of recent wildfire budget cuts in the budget for this year, but these cuts are being defended by Premier Rachel Notley as necessary. The provincial budget showed that theer would be a $5.1 million cut in tanker contracts and a $9.6 million cut to the base wildfire management budget. According to Notley these cuts were simply common practice for base funding earmarking, and that there is an understanding that the emergency budget for the province covers firefighting efforts. Premier Rachel Notley discussed the wildfire budget cuts during a recent press conference and stated “In no way, shape or form are we suggesting that we wouldn’t put every bit of resources that are required to ensure that fires are appropriately fought as they arise. This is the way these kinds of emergent and non-predictable costs are typically budgeted.”
According to Wildrose Leader Brian Jean “Fighting forest fires is one of the most important things we can do. Forestry is one of our largest resources here in Alberta and should be protected.” The current wildfire crisis could make the budget cuts in this area even more of an issue with residents, especially if they do not think the province was prepared for the wildfire that is going on. This could lead to finger pointing once the crisis is over and there could be political fallout because of the wildfire budget cuts. In 2015 $375 million was spent by the province to fight wildfires, and none of the money spent for this purpose was previously earmarked in the provincial budget, it all came from emergency funding for the province instead.
