How we work with Indigenous governments
Last updated on March 26, 2025
Indigenous governments issue evacuation alerts and orders for their communities and manage wildfires within their jurisdiction.
On this page
We recognize staff time and capacity can be limited in Indigenous communities. This guide is intended to provide a broad overview of the many considerations and actions available, and not every item will be suitable or feasible for every community.
Before a wildfire
Indigenous governments can proactively prepare to engage with wildfire events, during all seasons of the year. Consider these pathways to building preparedness and resiliency.
Apply for wildfire prevention and emergency management funding
Wildfire prevention activities can help to reduce the risk of wildfire impacts. Your community can take proactive action to reduce risk and build resiliency by applying for wildfire prevention and preparedness funding.
This list is intended as a supporting resource only and the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) does not administer these funding programs. Some programs may have annual funding maximums and be temporarily fully subscribed. For the most up-to-date information available, follow the links and connect with the funding agency directly.
- The Community Resiliency Investment (CRI) program provides communities with funding and support to complete FireSmart initiatives
- The Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) is a suite of funding streams intended to enhance resilience and includes streams for Disaster Risk Reduction-Climate Adaptation, Emergency Operations Centres Equipment and Training, Emergency Support Services Equipment and Training, Public Notification and Evacuation Route Planning, Volunteer and Composite Fire Departments Equipment and Training and more.
- The ISC-First Nations’ Emergency Service Society (FNESS) On Reserve FireSmart, Operational Fuel Treatment, and Cultural & Prescribed Fire Funding program provides communities with funding and support to complete mitigation initiatives.
- Wildfire risk reduction planning and treatment projects may qualify for funding from the Forest Enhancement Society BC (FESBC)
- For emergency management and other wildfire resiliency funding streams, check out the CleanBC Funding Finder Tool Funding - Community Climate Funding (gov.bc.ca)
- FNESS Wildland Firefighter Training Program
Build knowledge
Enroll in and complete the Justice Institute of BC's Emergency Operations Centre Essentials courses. They are provided at no cost to participants and intended for staff and volunteers from Indigenous communities who fill various roles during emergency and disaster response. The CEPF can be used to fund travel for training.
The FNESS – Community Support Preparedness Division provides in-person and online training for Indigenous communities. Online sessions are facilitated three times per year. Connect with FNESS at preparedness@fness.bc.ca for more information about scheduling and how to register.
Stay updated on wildfire trends and risks through BCWS information sources. These are typically dispersed by BCWS information officers at an incident, Regional Wildfire Coordination Centre (RWCC)/Fire Centre, or the Provincial Wildfire Coordination Centre (PWCC) in Kamloops. We share information through:
- Meetings
- Phone calls, including the public information line (1-888-336-7378)
- BCWS website
- BCWS smartphone app: Apple, Android
- BCWS social media: Facebook and YouTube
- Media interviews
Get in touch
If you haven’t already, consider reaching out to your local Fire Centre to establish primary contacts for emergency management before there is a fire in or near your territory. Working together on prevention activities including cultural and prescribed burning or other fuel management activities can be a great way to build a relationship. This could also be a good time to discuss community values and priorities in the event of a wildfire.
The First Nations’ Emergency Services Society can also support your community with wildfire training, fire equipment purchasing guidance and support for cultural burning. You may consider coordinating with neighbouring jurisdictions.
If you’re planning to burn piles for wildfire risk reduction, you can register your burn by calling 1-888-797-1717 or emailing hpr.1800@gov.bc.ca. Learn more about burn registration.
You may also want to connect with your regional Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR) office to establish contacts and for support with evacuation planning and training.
Plan and prepare
Explore opportunities for contracts during response
Connect with your local Fire Centre and Zone staff about how your community can be integrated into wildfire response. There are many opportunities to support response operations directly and indirectly through contracts.
If your community has a forestry company or there are individuals in your community with forestry equipment, there may be opportunities to lease your equipment during wildfire response. Visit the Guidance for Forestry Business Contractors page to learn more.
For other contract opportunities, visit the Contract Opportunities page.
Plans
Identify which areas are at most risk from a wildfire. If possible, undertake a Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan (CWRP) to identify and address at-risk areas (funding is available). You may ask your BCWS local fire zone for help with this. Reach out to your local Fire Centre, and they can connect you.
From there, make a detailed emergency response plan. It should have a hazard assessment that's relevant to your area. You must keep this updated as you learn more. Your emergency plan should also:
- Be based on the results of conversations with neighbouring local authorities
- Include assigned roles and responsibilities for emergency planning and operations
- List alternative processes for non-working days and staff absences
- Include fatigue and staff management plans. Wildfire events can last for several weeks, often require high-stress work and can significantly impact the wellbeing of staff.
- Consider business continuity needs, including impacts to core services and infrastructure in the event of an evacuation.
- Establish processes for approvals, authorities and records management to identify how emergency and core business operations will continue over a long period of time.
Your internal teams
Your teams are the most valuable resource you have. It's important to understand and leverage their social, economic and cultural strengths. These can reveal hidden talents like problem-solving, mapping skills, collaboration and local knowledge.
Once you understand these strengths, share them with the team to enhance collective abilities. Keeping everyone's understanding up to date on all types of processes and areas of expertise ensures that a pool of knowledge is always available.
When planning for an emergency, it’s important to consider continuity and how your team will manage responsibilities while accounting for rest, time away, familial responsibilities and/or turnover. By proactively identifying contingency and continuity plans, your community can manage emergency responsibilities without negative impacts to your team’s health and wellness.
Having one clear point of contact for your community helps to ensure consistent information sharing through the duration of a wildfire incident.
Build networks and collaborate
Proactively connecting with community leaders, including local fire services, influential community members, and those from neighbouring communities, who can help during emergencies helps to establish a foundation for robust support.
Consider the benefits of connecting with neighbouring jurisdictions to form a multijurisdictional emergency management organization. Local Authorities must consult and cooperate with Indigenous Governing Bodies prior to exercising land or property-based powers, including issuing alerts and/or evacuations orders, and this should occur before a wildfire is impacting your region. Learn more about the requirement here.
Conduct simulation exercises
Regular simulation exercises help staff and leaders build confidence in their roles and responsibilities during an emergency. This confidence can lead to more decisive action when every second counts. Examples of mock exercises include:
- Initiating response protocols during a wildfire incident
- Implementing backup communication strategies when standard networks fail
- Running exercises on allocating and managing critical resources like water supply, firefighting equipment and emergency shelters
Engage your community
When the community is informed and engaged, they're better prepared for emergencies.
Tailored messages help people understand the specific risks and actions they'd need to take in the event of a wildfire. Having this knowledge can reduce panic and confusion during actual emergencies.
Connect and collaborate with a BCWS information officer to create messages tailored to your community's values and distribute them through multiple channels and other engagement opportunities.
It's important to consider how to communicate your messaging to everyone in a way that is accessible, including those without internet or smartphone connectivity. For example:
- Local media, like newspapers and radio stations
- Door-to-door campaigns
- Community meetings
- Community loudspeakers
Consider members of your community who may not speak English as first language and the potential to offer communication in your community’s local language.
Consider how you’ll alert your community
In an emergency, it’s important to have an established approach for sharing emergency alerts so you can quickly and consistently get the message out. Some approaches include sirens, door-to-door notifications and your online communication channels (website or social media).
Depending on your community’s capacity and needs, you may also consider an emergency alert system that can reach your community members through cellphones, email and telephone landlines. These messages are sent to provide urgent public safety information during life-threatening emergencies. Consider coordinating with neighbouring jurisdictions to find opportunities for collaboration and ensure consistency around local alerts.
Indigenous governments may choose from a variety of tools. For example, Alertable and Voyent Alert. In the event of an emergency, Indigenous governments may also work with EMCR to issue a BC Emergency Alert.
During a wildfire
A wildfire can be a highly stressful event for communities and their leadership. Transparent and ongoing communications between Indigenous governments and other local authorities, BCWS and EMCR ensure that all parties have the information required to take timely and coordinated actions to keep people safe. Each of these partners has essential roles to play, and understanding the scope and limitations of each organization’s responsibilities will help to organize your work to stabilize wildfire events.
| Activity | Lead agency |
|---|---|
|
Schedule and host coordination calls throughout duration of incident |
|
| Activate Emergency Operations Centre |
|
| Make recommendations for Evacuation Orders, Alerts, and Rescinds based on current and forecasted fire behaviour |
|
| Implement Evacuation Orders, Alerts, and Rescinds within the boundaries of the municipality, or within the boundaries of any electoral areas within the regional district, Nisga’a Lands, or treaty lands of a treaty First Nation |
|
| Implement Evacuation Orders, Alerts, and Rescinds on Reserve Lands, modern Treaty Lands, and Title Lands |
|
|
Establish reception centres and provide evacuee supports for public evacuated from Reserve Lands, Treaty Lands, and Title Lands |
|
| Conduct Rapid Damage Assessments and Post Disaster Needs Assessment on Reserve Lands, Treaty Lands, and Title Lands |
|
| Implement Area Restrictions on Crown land |
|
| Permit access to Restricted Areas |
|
| Make Recommendations for airspace restrictions |
|
| Implement Airspace Restrictions |
|
| Permit Access to Restricted Airspace |
|
| Make Recommendations for closures of Forest Service Roads based on current and forecasted fire behaviour |
|
| Implement closures of Forest Service Roads |
|
| Make Recommendations for closures of Highways based on current and forecasted fire behaviour |
|
| Implement closures of highways |
|
| Make recommendations for closures of Federal and Provincial Parks based on current and forecasted fire behaviour |
|
| Implement closures of Federal and Provincial Parks |
|
| Share information on current and forecasted fire behaviour, firefighting operations, and changes to status of fire with public, community leadership, and affected partners |
|
| Share information on Evacuation Orders/Alerts/Rescinds, community re-entry, and emergency services with Public |
|
| Deploy Fire Services (Structure Protection and/or Structure Defense equipment and crews) based on threat to property and infrastructure, potential efficacy of resources, and provincial availability of resources |
|
| Request Structure Protection resources or fuel modification from FNESS |
|
| Deploy Structure Protection or fuel modification crews, based on request from Indigenous Governments |
|
| When operationally feasible, solicit input on operational plans affecting Reserve Lands, Treaty Lands, and Title Lands, and Traditional Use Areas from Indigenous Governments |
|
|
Provide information on locations and nature of Sensitive Cultural Sites to BCWS officials |
|
*Indigenous Governing Body means an entity that is authorized to act on behalf of Indigenous peoples that hold rights recognized and affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.
* Local Authority in this document as it is defined in EDMA which means (a) a municipality; (b) a regional district (c) Nisga'a Nation; (d) a treaty First Nation.
EMCR will organize a multi-way recommendation call. It will include your community’s emergency management team, EMCR personnel, BCWS personnel, Ministry of Transportation and Transit personnel, FNESS, and representatives from other affected jurisdictions and local authorities. This call is used to provide up-to-date wildfire information to all partners and to make evacuation alert and order recommendations to the authority having jurisdiction.
EMCR may also organize two other types of calls: Information Calls and Coordination Calls. During Information Calls, subject matter experts provide updates to a large audience of potentially impacted or interested communities and agencies. Coordination Calls are smaller and can be organized to support coordinated actions between communities and support agencies.
Indigenous governing bodies can share official information sources to keep your community informed and up to date. BCWS is committed to ongoing incident-level engagement with Indigenous governments on wildfires that affect Indigenous lands, including Reserve Lands, Rights and Title lands, and traditional use areas. The intent of this engagement is two-way information sharing.
The BCWS representative responsible for engagement will work with your leadership team to establish ongoing communications through a community representative, who may be a member of your staff, or a community member activated through a contract with BCWS. BCWS will provide transparent and timely updates on current and forecasted fire behaviour, operational priorities and plans, and anticipated challenges to Indigenous governments. BCWS asks that Indigenous governments inform wildfire response personnel of specific priorities and values, including sensitive cultural sites, through ongoing communications with BCWS officials.
The BCWS representative assigned to incident-level engagement with your community will work with you to find opportunities for local contributions to the wildfire effort through a variety of contracts. This includes activating pre-organized contracts and potentially developing new contracts for unforeseen services.
Emergency Services
Indigenous Governing Bodies may maintain reception centres and evacuee support services for public evacuated from Reserve Lands, Treaty Lands, and Title Lands. You are also responsible for managing access to evacuated areas.
It's recommended your community conduct rapid damage assessments. This can help your community gain situational awareness and will inform the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA). This PDNA will be used to develop your Community Recovery Plan. This is important because a Community Recovery Plan allows your government to:
- Identify potential funding opportunities for recovery actions
- Provide organized, strategic direction for the community in the case of turnover during a time of increased workload
- Signal to the public and partners that the community is approaching recovery with intention and strategic planning. This creates trust and opportunities for collaboration
- Track recovery progress, compare new projects against values and needs and improve the trajectory of long-term recovery
Evacuation Alerts and Orders
Based on current and forecasted fire behaviour, BCWS will provide recommendations on evacuation alerts, orders and rescinds. It’s the responsibility of Indigenous governments to issue, communicate and implement these legal orders. BCWS does not have the authority to issue or rescind evacuation alerts and orders independently of the authority having jurisdiction, except in the case of immediate threats to life and property, when BCWS staff may implement tactical evacuations. If this occurs, BCWS will inform you and make recommendations for formal alerts or orders in a subsequent multi-way recommendation call organized by EMCR.
There may be times when your government recognizes the need to implement an evacuation alert, order, or rescind in an area outside of your formal jurisdiction. If this is the case, coordinate with the authorities having jurisdiction to ensure that all affected areas are encompassed. Often, Indigenous and other local governments will issue joint evacuation alerts, orders, or rescindments.
If you plan to move forward with an evacuation order, activate your Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). If you're planning to arrange community meetings, ensure they're in a safe area to brief people, address concerns and provide clear, actionable guidance.
Road Closures and Area Restrictions
BCWS may recommend resource road closures to the Ministry of Forests, closures of transportation corridors to transportation authorities and airspace restrictions to aviation authorities. These authorities are responsible for final decisions and enforcing these restrictions.
If firefighting operations are ongoing on Crown land outside of populated areas, BCWS may implement an Area Restriction that prohibits use of a specified geographic area. Area Restrictions are implemented under Section 11 of the Wildfire Act, with the intent of protecting public safety and preventing interference with fire control. Entrance to an Area Restriction can be permitted by BCWS officials, who will work with you to minimize impact to operations your community may have planned within restricted areas.
Fire Control and Operations
BCWS will coordinate with Indigenous governments to manage suppression when a wildfire originating on Crown land crosses into their jurisdiction.
When property and critical infrastructure are threatened by wildfire, BCWS Fire Services will deploy Structure Protection Specialists to assess the potential need for resources such as Structure Protection (Structure Protection Units i.e. Sprinkler Systems) and Structure Defense (Fire Engines) to mitigate damage within the Wildland Urban Interface. If it is determined that structure protection or structure defense resources will be effective, and based on provincial availability, BCWS Fire Services will then deploy the resources identified in the specialist’s assessment.
Indigenous governments may also consider requesting Structure Protection resources directly through FNESS. In some cases, both BCWS Fire Services and FNESS can deploy structure protection and structure defense resources simultaneously. If this occurs, BCWS and FNESS will coordinate efforts through the BCWS Structure Protection Coordination Officer.
In addition to Structure Protection, FNESS may be able to assist with the delivery of Emergency Services, vegetative fuel modification within or near community infrastructure, and rapid damage assessments.
Demobilization
If BCWS has deployed Fire Services resources such as structure protection crews or structure defense equipment (fire engines, water tenders), a Structure Protection Specialist will continually assess the need for equipment and crews. To ensure provincial availability, BCWS will demobilize Fire Services resources once the threat to property and infrastructure is no longer present. Typically, Fire Services resources will be demobilized prior to or concurrently with BCWS officials recommending the downgrade of Evacuation Orders to Alerts.
Throughout the duration of the wildfire incident, EMCR is responsible for organizing multi-way recommendation, information, and coordination calls to ensure situational awareness for all affected parties. The frequency of these calls may change as the incident stabilizes, and once the stage of control reaches Being Held or Under Control, coordination calls are on an as-and-when-needed basis.
After a Wildfire
Support your community’s return to normalcy in the aftermath of a wildfire.
Coordinate re-entry for evacuees
Indigenous governments are responsible for prioritizing the coordination and safety of evacuee re-entry. This means you must:
- Conduct thorough inspections to make sure that basic utilities like water, electricity and gas are functional and safe
- Ensure that critical infrastructure is intact or restored to prevent any harm to returning residents
- Use various communication channels to provide clear guidelines and schedules for re-entry
Share community recovery resources
Indigenous governments should share recovery resources to facilitate efficient post-disaster recovery through multiple channels. By distributing information on available resources such as financial assistance, counselling services and reconstruction support, Indigenous governments ensure that every community member is informed and empowered to get the help they need.
Establishing local recovery centres is also important. These centres serve as vital hubs for people to access information and apply for aid. This approach speeds up the recovery process. It also builds a foundation of trust and reliability between you and the communities you serve.
The BC Wildfire Risk – Claims program is the primary point of contact for fire suppression damages that have occurred on private land and Reserve Lands. Claims for damages are initiated by the claimant emailing BCWS.Claims@gov.bc.ca. When needed, wildfire suppression rehabilitation practitioners will work closely and coordinate operations with the BC Wildfire Risk – Claims team for rehabilitation activities. Community groups may also be involved in reviewing plans or providing input if the proposed treatments impact their members.
Inform your community on identified risks
You are responsible for updating your community about the findings in your post-wildfire natural hazards risk assessment. All fires larger than 50 hectares are screened for risks and reconnaissance reports for wildfires with potential risks are typically delivered by EMCR soon after a fire is declared “Under Control.” Learn more about the process.
Get support for long-term land-based recovery
Connect with your local forest district office about plans for land-based recovery. You may be eligible for funding to support recovery of eco-cultural values.
Additionally, your community may see increased interest in commercial morel mushroom harvesting post-fire. Forest district offices can also provide a guidebook with steps for implementing a morel mushroom harvest management program.
You can also request a copy from WildfireLandBasedRecovery@gov.bc.ca
Learn more about Wildfire Land Based Recovery.
Resources