Vancouver, B.C.-  The first item on the agenda  of the meeting of the Western Premiers has  resulted in a call  for the Federal Government  to provide funding support for a national program to increase support for public education
and mitigation activities related to wildfires.They also called on the federal government to increase emergency-management capacity. This includes measures to improve fire preparedness and suppression capacity, such as improvements to aging infrastructure, providing equipment and
enhancing Aboriginal firefighting capacity and increasing protection of Aboriginal and other rural communities from wildland fires.

The Premiers also called  for the  Federal  Government to provide more funding for  firefighting resources and ensuring that training is provided to Canadian Armed Forces personnel in wildfire firefighting techniques.

The Western Premiers  also agree the Federal Government  must work collaboratively with provinces and territories to better predict, prepare for and respond to weather-related emergencies and natural disasters.
They reiterated their call for the federal government to reverse changes to the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements, which offload additional emergency support and recovery costs onto individuals, provinces and territories. They also expressed concern about long delays in disbursement of funds under these arrangements.

Western Premiers also discussed the importance of investing in disaster mitigation infrastructure in order to reduce the scale and cost of natural disasters. They agreed the $200 million over five years available for priority projects across the country through the National Disaster Mitigation Program isn’t enough and  called for  Ottawa to make  a significant boost to  the dedicated disaster mitigation infrastructure funding.