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A Fort-Smith based wildfire project is receiving $2.5 million from the federal government.
The GNWT will receive the cash for a project titled Enhancing Northern Community and Ecosystem Resilience to Fire, Ottawa announced earlier this week.
The project is one of 30 wildfire-related initiatives across the country to receive funding through Natural Resources Canada’s Build and Mobilize Foundational Wildland Fire Knowledge program.
According to a description of the Fort Smith project, it will “build foundational wildfire knowledge by characterizing historic fire behaviour, evaluating the impacts and conditions of short-interval reburns and analyzing long-term risks to communities under different fire suppression regimes.”
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The funding announcement, on August 12, coincided with the day Fort Smith was placed under an evacuation order in 2023.
“This will enable critical work to study wildfire patterns and identify gaps in how we respond to wildfires,” NWT MP and Crown-Indigenous relations minister Rebecca Alty said of the project on Facebook.
“That way, we can better protect our homes and families in the years to come.”
