Williams Lake requests $1 billion rural fire recovery fund

Williams Lake is calling in a 9-1-1 to the federal and provincial governments asking for a $1-billion recovery fund to help wildfire-impacted communities in B.C.  “We are in dire straights,” Coun. Scott Nelson said during Tuesday’s city council meeting as he put forth a motion calling for the government aid. The “emergency” motion, which council endorsed unanimously, suggests the fund be called the Rural Fire Recovery Fund 2017. …“There’s no doubt this has been an unprecedented year and we are still in the midst of it in terms of an economic crisis. Today there has been more than $410 million in direct costs fighting fires in the province, close to 11,000 square kilometres of timber, bush and grasslands have been destroyed.”