Canadian Government Executive - Volume 23 - Issue 07

14 / Canadian Government Executive // October 2017 Kim Conners C anada’s wildland fire man- agement agencies rely on the cooperative support of their fellow agencies, and at times international partners, to address severe fire situations. No agency can practically maintain sufficient resources to deal with its most problematic fire situations on its own. The agencies rely on the sharing of personnel, aircraft and equipment from across Canada to protect people, property and resource values from the threats of unwanted wildfire. The agencies – including the 10 provinc- es, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and the federal government represented by the Canadian Forest Service and Parks Canada – also come together to develop and share policy, procedures, standards and best practices to improve forest fire management in Canada. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Inc. (CIFFC) was opened on June 2, 1982 with a mandate to provide opera- tional forest fire management services to its member agencies, including efforts to gather, analyse and disseminate fire man- agement information to ensure a cost ef- fective sharing of resources, facilitate re- source exchange, and to actively promote, develop, refine, standardise and provide services to its members that will improve forest fire management in Canada. Located in Winnipeg, CIFFC operates the national coordination centre, which monitors the daily fire situation in Canada and internationally, acts as a centre for in- formation exchange, and coordinates the sharing of resources between those agen- cies requiring assistance to address esca- lated fire situations, and those agencies with resources available to assist. Leadership The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre Organizational Structure CIFFC operates as a private non-profit corporation with two levels of manage- ment which direct the operation: 1. The Board of Directors is made up of Assistant Deputy Ministers respon- sible for forestry representing each of the Provinces, Territories and Federal Government. 2. The Management Committee is com- prised of the Directors responsible for forest fire management for each of the Provinces, Territories and representa- tives of the Federal Government. CIFFC is led by an Executive Director, and staffed by a small number of person- nel who provide leadership in strategic planning, operations, resource and infor- mation management, training and admin- istrative support. Advanced Resource Sharing Resources in Canada are shared on a for- mal basis under the Canadian Interagen- cy Mutual Aid Resources Sharing (MARS) Agreement which outlines three catego- ries of resources: equipment, personnel and aircraft. In addition to co-operating with the United States, the CIFFC and its member agencies have arrangements with Aus- tralia, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa. Requests for assistance from and to other countries are negotiated on an as-and-when needed basis. The CIFFC also maintains membership with inter- national organizations such as the North American Forestry Commission and the Global Fire Monitoring Centre. The Hot, Dry Season During the fire season, CIFFC operates its national coordination centre seven days a week. An integral part of its operation is the “situation report” which provides information and intelligence on the fire situation and resource availability to all member agencies. The CIFFC coordination centre sets a National Planning Level from 1 (low) to 5 (most severe) each day during the fire sea- son, as a measure of the current and fore- cast level of fire activity across the country, and of the current and expected level of resource exchange and availability. During escalated fire situations in Can- ada when significant numbers of inter- national resources have been imported to assist the Canadian agencies, interna- tional liaison officers will be located at CIFFC to help coordinate the deployment of their agency’s resources, and ensure a clear flow of information between the in- ternational agency and the host province or territory. The resources imported and exchanged during a severe fire event can be very sig- nificant: during the 2016 Horse River fire in Alberta, international resources includ- ing personnel, aircraft and equipment were brought in from the USA, Mexico and South Africa in addition to significant resources from all agencies within Cana- da. Arrangements had also been made to mobilize resources from Australia and New Zealand if required. CIFFC’s role in- cluded the coordination of transport, co- ordination of logistics with sending and receiving agencies, and communication and coordination with federal agencies including Natural Resources Canada, the Government Operations Centre, Public Safety Canada, the Canadian Border Ser- vices Agency and others. Canadian Protection, International Attention CIFFC has attracted international atten- tion and delegations from various devel- oping nations regularly visit the Centre to review its operations. Through various departments of the Government of Cana- da, the CIFFC has coordinated Canadian response to international requests for as- sistance. Such requests for international assistance will continue and the Fire Cen- tre, along with member agencies and Ca- nadian corporations will be organized to address these requests. Roles and Activities