Photo: Castanet

The City of Kamloops’ FireSmart liaison says firefighters completed 200 FireSmart home assessments last year — an increase from previous years — and financial incentives are being considered to encourage more homeowners to complete wildfire mitigation work.

During Thursday’s safety and security committee meeting, Kathleen Cahoon told council members that these FireSmart home assessments are offered to help homeowners understand and mitigate fire risks around their property.

“The goal is to increase these numbers in 2025 and in years to come as well,” Cahoon said.

She noted FireSmart work involves the whole community.

“It doesn't just start and stop at the government level, but it extends to homeowners,” she said.

“With that, one of my biggest goals is to actively engage residents through education events and programs, and working with our partners at the BC Wildfire Service, Tk’emlups and TNRD [Thompson-Nicola Regional District], among others.”

She said a FireSmart survey launched this fall showed that of the 397 respondents, 302 reported completing wildfire mitigation activities around their homes, including cleaning gutters, pruning trees and cleaning debris.

The biggest hurdle to completing residential FireSmart work was the amount of time needed to complete these activities, followed by financial restrictions and a lack of understanding what to do.

Cahoon said other residents noted, among other concerns, that there weren’t any financial incentives, and they were overwhelmed with the amount of maintenance that must be done.

“This has provided me insight on my next steps moving forward, which is to hold more community events to promote education, as well as to look at creating rebate programs to help homeowners on the financial side of things,” she said.

She noted rebate programs could also help homeowners with little time to spare by hiring external contractors or someone to help complete the work.

Cahoon told the committee that the city is looking to implement a rebate program this year, supported by the city’s climate action fund. The program would incentivize homeowners to remove cedars and junipers.

A rebate would cover 50 per cent of eligible costs, up to a maximum $800 per household.

“I'm currently working with the project team on this. We're just ironing out some of the finer details of the program, and we're going to have it running within the first half of the year here,” she said.

“That one is really exciting, and it'll be a good time for end of spring into the summer months.”

Cahoon said she’s also applied for grant funding through Intact Insurance that would help establish a rebate program offering up to $1,000 to residents who complete FireSmart-recommended activities after a free assessment.