{"id":4650,"date":"2020-04-16T05:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T11:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/?p=4650"},"modified":"2020-04-16T06:06:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T12:06:38","slug":"alberta-still-18m-short-on-wildfire-fighting-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/16\/alberta-still-18m-short-on-wildfire-fighting-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta still $18M short on wildfire fighting budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Earlier this week, <strong>Devin Dreeshen<\/strong>, minster of agriculture and forestry, announced that the province will spend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alberta.ca\/release.cfm?xID=70088C28614F7-F6F7-53A6-BE98E0D906D6556A\">$5 million to hire 200 firefighters<\/a> this wildfire season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"580\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1FmUl6L9i1U?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-CA&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Last October, Dreeshen\u2019s ministry <a href=\"https:\/\/open.alberta.ca\/dataset\/3d732c88-68b0-4328-9e52-5d3273527204\/resource\/2b82a075-f8c2-4586-a2d8-3ce8528a24e1\/download\/budget-2019-fiscal-plan-2019-23.pdf\">cut its budget by almost 10%<\/a>, eliminating $88 million in spending. By the time the next provincial election arrives in 2023, the ministry will have cut spending by 15% from 2018\u201319 levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wildfire Alberta itself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aupe.org\/news\/news-and-updates\/alberta-government-playing-fire\">took on more than a quarter of that cut<\/a> alone, at $23 million\u2014from about $141 million to $117.6 million. That came at the expense of their entire rappelling team of 63 firefighters, 15 wildfire observers, and an air tanker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plus, they eliminated wildfire fighting from their contingency, disaster, and emergency assistance budget, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.alberta.ca\/dataset\/05bd4008-c8e3-4c84-949e-cc18170bc7f7\/resource\/79caa22e-e417-44bd-8cac-64d7bb045509\/download\/budget-2020-fiscal-plan-2020-23.pdf\">starting in the 2020\u201321 budget<\/a>. It had been budgeted at $485 million in the previous budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"205\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-14-at-15.42.19.png?resize=580%2C205&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4651\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-14-at-15.42.19.png?w=1412&amp;ssl=1 1412w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-14-at-15.42.19.png?resize=300%2C106&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-14-at-15.42.19.png?resize=768%2C271&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-14-at-15.42.19.png?resize=1200%2C423&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-14-at-15.42.19.png?resize=600%2C212&amp;ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And although they replaced it with a general contingency budget, it\u2019s still $450 million short of what they forecasted to spend in total on disaster and emergency assistance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 200 firefighters the province is hiring <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/1FmUl6L9i1U?t=709\">will be ground support<\/a>. No increase to air tanker, rappelling, or lookout tower crews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, while it\u2019s great that we will have $5 million more in the firefighting budget than we were going to have\u2014we\u2019re still $18 million short, compared to where we were prior to last autumn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alberta announced that they\u2019ll spend $5 million to hire 200 firefighters this wildfire season. But they just cut their budget by $23M.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[106],"tags":[85,110,86],"class_list":["post-4650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-devin-dreeshen","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/firefighters-702890_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4NkW7-1d0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4003,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2019\/11\/30\/tax-cuts-are-job-cuts-a-running-total\/","url_meta":{"origin":4650,"position":0},"title":"Tax cuts are job cuts: a running total","author":"Kim Siever","date":"30 November 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In this article, I will keep a running total of the number of public sector job losses in Alberta.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/knife-316655_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C794&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/knife-316655_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C794&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/knife-316655_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C794&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/knife-316655_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C794&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/knife-316655_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C794&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4353,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/03\/25\/alberta-workers-ignored-during-covid-19-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":4650,"position":1},"title":"Alberta workers ignored during COVID-19 crisis","author":"Kim Siever","date":"25 March 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Recent measures announced by the provincial government are not designed to help workers. Very few workers will benefit from them.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/working-1024382_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/working-1024382_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/working-1024382_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/working-1024382_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/working-1024382_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4388,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/03\/31\/10-things-to-know-about-albertas-keystone-xl-announcement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4650,"position":2},"title":"10 things to know about Alberta\u2019s Keystone XL announcement","author":"Kim Siever","date":"31 March 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You\u2019ve probably seen the announcement by this point that the Alberta government is spending $1.5 billion on the Keystone XL pipeline. Here are 10 things you should realize about it. 1. The $1.5 billion the Alberta government is using to buy shares in the company is only part of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4562,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/11\/6-myths-the-ucp-keeps-spreading-about-doctors\/","url_meta":{"origin":4650,"position":3},"title":"6 myths the UCP keeps spreading about doctors","author":"Kim Siever","date":"11 April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently encountered a thread on Twitter outlining several myths that the Alberta health minister keeps perpetuating as he continues fighting against doctors.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4610,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/14\/alberta-pledges-2-99-per-meal-for-food-banks\/","url_meta":{"origin":4650,"position":4},"title":"Alberta pledges $2.99 per meal for food banks","author":"Kim Siever","date":"14 April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, Alberta announced $5 million to \u201csupport food banks and community organizations in their food supply efforts\u201d. This sounds like a lot, but we must keep it in context.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/dishes-938747.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/dishes-938747.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/dishes-938747.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/dishes-938747.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/dishes-938747.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4557,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/10\/alberta-lost-a-record-117000-jobs-in-march\/","url_meta":{"origin":4650,"position":5},"title":"Alberta lost a record 117,000 jobs in March","author":"Kim Siever","date":"10 April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Alberta government released their March 2020 job numbers yesterday, and\u2014unsurprisingly\u2014they don\u2019t look good. Last month, Alberta lost over 117,000 jobs: 73,600 part-time jobs and 43,500 full-time jobs. Since Jason Kenney introduced his so-called Job Creation Tax Cut in July 2019, we\u2019ve had 4 months with drops in full-time jobs,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/person-1821413_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/person-1821413_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/person-1821413_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/person-1821413_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/person-1821413_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4650"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4708,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions\/4708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}