iN DISCUSSION: Okanagan bakery stirs up wildfire compensation controversy

This is where cold hard facts give way to the hottest of takes, mostly mine I suppose. I’m the editor, Marshall Jones.

Want to include yours? Listen, this isn’t the comment section, this isn’t social media. Discussion and debate requires context and a wee bit of bravery — we need your name and where you’re writing from. Include it in your account or email me anytime.

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A bakery and coffee shop in Peachland has stirred up some controversy by suggesting they be compensated for business lost when tourists fled from the latest fire season.

“Our building didn’t burn. Our market did,” was their line.

Actual victims are tearing them apart online, mostly because the owner felt the need to stand in line behind a couple hundred families that just lost their home.

Normally I would bust out my own tar and feathers but a couple things should be pointed out.

First, this is British Columbia. We tend to compensate everyone for everything so don’t feign surprise someone else has their hand out. And don’t be surprised if they get it.

A larger point was lost in the awful timing and presentation of this but it’s far bigger than you think and one we are trying to measure.

As I have railed on for weeks now, we tend to do ‘fire season’ by rote. We measure it by hectares burned, homes lost. We’re seeing a new one creep up, too: lives lost.

But we want to see more numbers, as in what is the real cost of fire season? Not just for firefighters and helicopters and emergency social services… what about crop losses? Hotel rooms cancelled? Donuts unsold? Athletic and arts events cancelled?

Don’t pretend you don’t know what Bliss Bakery is talking about. The lack of tourists in the Okanagan right now is strange and unsettling, doubly so for anyone employed in that industry.

If I were a mayor of one of these cities or towns, I would find that number because that ledger needs to be balanced.

That’s how much — at least — we should feel free to spend mitigating our losses this fall, winter and spring.

Because when you add them all up, from Osoyoos on up to Kamloops, it’s a drop in the bucket to the real problem — confidence.

What the bakery is basically saying is we’re on the verge of not having a tourism industry anymore. Tourism businesses follow the visitors who need confidence their one vacation, their one marathon, their one concert won’t be choking on ash and fleeing flames.

Some wineries have lost crops in 5 out of 12 years. What’s the likelihood of smoke and ash next year, 70 per cent? 80? That’d be 6 out of 13. Would you invest your money in that?

When confidence goes, so does investment.

Tally that cost.

I’ll never understand why health and peace are never enough motivation to act, but in such cases I have found money will often do the trick.

Want to help us with this? Are we on the right track? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

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I fully acknowledge the position Prime Minister Mark Carney is in. Impossible doesn’t quite cover it.

He’s in high stakes negotiations with the US and the clock is ticking. His main rival is Donald Trump, 80 years a bully. He’s famous for the last minute rug pull.

Like the Gordie Howe Bridge. It was negotiated, signed and sealed. But when delivery came due, Trump had to have his piece, a last concession for his friends.

And Carney had to eat it just to open it.

That was a bridge. Now we are discussing trade and Trump’s latest cudgel — special tariffs for his closest ally if we don’t find an agreement. Thousands of Canadian jobs and entire industries are on the line.

On the other side, expectations from Canadians are high. Sleeves rolled up, ready to put their elbows where needed. Carney needs to be very careful if and where he caves.

It’s not just about keeping the confidence of Canadians, which is a close second consideration. We can’t capitulate. The grand strategic vision of the US is for Canada to be a vassal state, supplying resources without opportunity or agency. It wants all and share none.

Targeted tariffs — the negotiations underway right now — are how that is accomplished.

It’s not an all or nothing. Of course, Canada must give some ground. This trade deal has to bridge whatever nation we are building in response.

To get there, we need to maintain the hope and resolve to make it happen.

That’s my two cents. Got any change? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

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I’ve been struggling to understand my own feelings about wildfire season, smoke and threat of evacuation.

In other words, summer.

I thought I had a unique perspective as a reporter. I have covered threatening wildfires since 2003, been evacuated several times. I thought I earned that anxiety by staring at it every day.

I haven’t planned a summer vacation for at least 10 years because I know where I will be: At home, covering fires, bags packed, ready to evacuate.

I thought perhaps it was also a product of where I live, in the BC Interior, that something different was happening here. Of course, that’s not the case.

This story made me realize my perspective is not unique. A lot of us feel this way.

The summers of my youth are not the same. They have been disrupted by climate change and I don’t think they are coming back.

There’s no denying this anymore, it’s expectation. No more dissonance. No more hoping things will change next year and I take some peace with that.

The question and challenge is what we do about it. Can we mitigate, manage, prepare and adapt?

A few years ago, we got so fed up with covering fire season as an emergency, my team and I resolved to keep writing throughout the year about fire mitigation and off season efforts around the province to…

Lol. Once the fires are out, no one cares. Cared? Past tense? Maybe it’s different this year. Maybe the ledger has finally turned on the confidence of farmers and wineries and orchards and hotels and tourism. Maybe the losses outpacing what we spend on fire mitigation while finally prompt adaptation.

One can only hope. Folks, I know this is kind of depressing but we are, indeed, in this together and we can do more than we think. How are you feeling? Want to talk about it? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

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iN RESPONSE

iN RESPONSE to Friday’s newsletter opinion-editorial on wildfire compensation for businesses

Are you kidding? If we add another compensation to our already stretched taxes I will leave this province!!! Well probably not but I will sure as heck want to. And where will the line be drawn on that? Before you know it insurance companies will be charging bigger numbers because we are compensating lost donuts. As it is my house insurance almost doubled this year from one thousand to over two. And it was double what my friend in Surrey pays…same company and same year and size house. I was told that we live in a wildfire risky place. Okay, I get that. But if I have to have my insurance go up even more or my taxes to compensate donut loss with the excuse that it affects tourism (what tourism? If your town is burnt there isn’t going to be tourism in your town) I will be pretty angry. We are still recovering from the same loss from the shut down with Covid now wildfire business loss? That is a hard no.

— Helen Price via email

We are not adequately punishing or deterring offenders who start these fires; most are caused by humans.
Wildfires are very costly in terms of loss, suffering, and financial distress.
Our legal system is far too lenient, in my opinion. Violent crimes against others have increased, not decreased. Human rights are valid, but must be removed in a way that adequately punishes and deters. When crime rates continue to rise, it’s clear harsher punishments are necessary.

— Karen Klein via email

Kamloops mayor ordered in unsealed court decision to pay former lawyer $35,000

The Mayor and all council members are a bunch of crooks and like little kids in a sand box fighting over who is better then whom. Spending out large amounts of money on dinners etc., giving themselves raises for what? We need better representatives. Kamloops could do better.

— Denise Nicol, Kamloops via email

Everyone on Kamloops city council running for re-election

None of them deserve to be re-elected. They are incompetent and childish.

— Rick Hofman, Kamloops via iNFOnews.ca

iN DISCUSSION: How effective is government wildfire emergency alert system?

Did you actually say this? “Maybe cut down or burn a few of the millions of trees surrounding our communities.” 

The forests sequester carbon – necessary for the human-caused high CO2 levels in the atmosphere creating a global heating blanket.

The forests hold the snow in winter and the rains in spring to feed our aquifers, creeks and rivers which replenish our lakes.

The forests provide refuge for animals and keep our planet’s healthy biodiversity. 

The forests are critical to human survival. Our problem is in thinking we humans are more important than all of nature.

BC needs to stop clear-cutting forests and begin to pay the foresters to manage them, selectively harvesting and rebuilding the forest floor and the ability to survive fires without endangering communities. 

There is a plan for a New Forest Act for this management. https://boundaryforest.org/the-new-forest-act-proposal/

The Minister of Forests knows about the scientific reports on the necessity to manage the forests for our planetary health and our BC jobs/economy/survival. Yet he ignores them.

— Lori Goldman, Penticton, breathing toxic smoke and helping people who have evacuated from a fire weather storm.

Hi Marshall,

I totally agree with you, it’s past time to face reality. Municipal, Provincial and Federal governments have to MANDATE fire smart practises immedialely. We were evacuated from Cherry Creek back in Auguust 2021. The following year the TNRD was out in force with firesmart information. Since 2024 they have been providing on site fire smart audits for property owners, after which they gave us a written report of items which require attention to ensure our properties are as fire resistant as possible. Imagine my disappointment this year when the Boston Bar fire first hit the news. Sadly it’s no wonder those properties burnt as none of them appeared to have followed the recommendations made. The same was painfully evident for each and every new wild fire news cast. If property owners aren’t prepared to deal with thier own properties protection they should be assessed a hefty fine to help the rest of us pay for thier lack of due diligence. The same is true for everyone caught causing a fire that damages homes and properties, perhaps if it hits thier pocket books they’ll start to listen.

As we know we won’t get the water or snow we need to refill aquafirs and moisten the soil we need to start thinking about farmers, ranchers, and home owners installing underground water storage for rain barrel runoff. Mine are currently watering my trees to ensure they don’t totally dry out. 

Thanks for letting me vent.

— Dianne Jackson, via email

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