Tuesday May 7, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated 7:30 pm PDT]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
TD Bank Group (TD) has donated a total of $250,000 to four organizations that focus on wildfire prevention and disaster relief.
The organizations carry out wildfire prevention and disaster relief work in British Columbia, Alberta and Atlantic Canada.
“One of the ways we aim to support our communities to be able to handle such tough moments is by providing funding to organizations working to help people stay safe, avoid the worst-case scenario and maintain access to daily necessities,” said Alicia Rose, Associate Vice President, Social Impact, Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship, TD Bank Group.
This is Emergency Preparedness Week in Canada (May 5 to 11, 2024).
Donation of $62,500 to each organization:
The quarter-million-dollar contribution will be split equally between four organizations (i.e. $62,500 to each).
While any and all funding is likely quite welcome, in the scope of wildfire management, that’s a small contribution (could be the cost of just one piece of equipment, one aerial water-drop, or operations of an Emergency Operations Centre for perhaps a week).
These are one-time donations in response to the expected intensity of the 2024 wildfire season.
“Environment and Climate Change Canada and Natural Resources Canada has indicated that this season is projected to be Canada’s worst wildfire season to date. These donations are being made in response to this year’s projections to address the urgent need for proactive measures,” said a TD spokesperson today.
TD donations range from under $1,000 to over $1 million. In 2023, TD contributed $157 million to support non-profit and community organizations across their footprint.
Four organizations chosen:
As stated in a news release from TD on May 7, 2024 these are the four organizations:
First Nations Emergency Services Society (FNESS) of British Columbia plays a pivotal role in supporting First Nations communities in British Columbia with wildfire prevention, education, training, and emergency management response and planning. They are working in collaboration with communities across British Columbia to enhance their safety through programs that train, educate and support local leaders, equip communities, and provide assistance with accessing funding.
University of Alberta Wildfire Analytics Team works to develop practical, insightful, and accessible tools and approaches for immediate use by decision makers working to help social and ecological systems to thrive in fire prone environments. They are helping communities and fire authorities pre-plan evacuation routes, prioritize where to deploy their crews and proactively reduce fire fuel by conducting original research and working with fire managers.
CLIMAtlantic facilitates access to data and information that fosters collaboration among regional and local groups to help Atlantic Canadian communities to adapt to the challenges posed by wildfires and climate change.
GlobalFire (part of GlobalMedic) helps strengthen the emergency response capacity of organizations and communities around the world by collecting and donating fire suppression equipment, training local first responders in firefighting and first aid and performing Search and Rescue operations around the world. To support smaller Canadian municipalities, fire departments and Indigenous communities that need to bolster their current capacity, they created a lending library of equipment to help ensure areas of greatest need can be reached.
Why these four organizations:
Island Social Trends asked TD why they chose these four organizations.
“We looked for organizations across Canada that focused on prevention and preparedness efforts to help proactively tackle wildfire risks. While we know there are many organizations doing meaningful work in this space, we looked for organizations that were addressing wildfire prevention through research, technology, equipment, and training to support robust response effort across the country,” said a TD spokesperson today.
2024 wildfire season:
According to recent metrics from sources including Environment and Climate Change Canada and Natural Resources Canada, this season is projected to be Canada’s worst wildfire season to date, underscoring the urgent need for proactive measures to address the escalating risk of wildfires, states TD in their news release today.
TD notes about 60 fires burning across the country, notably in northern BC (only four noted as ‘out of control’ by the BC Wildfire Service), northern Alberta, and the southern Northwest Territories.
Supporting communities:
“As a member of local communities across Canada, TD is fully aware of the distress, disruptions and destruction wildfires can cause” said Rose.
“We hope that our donation today will help such organizations to equip communities with the knowledge and tools they need to bolster their prevention and preparedness efforts so that they can proactively tackle wildfires risks and avoid being impacted as much as possible,” she said in today’s release.
===== RELATED:
TD Bank Group donates $196,000 to Royal Roads food-growing initiatives (May 30, 2023)
NEWS SECTIONS: BUSINESS & ECONOMY | EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS