Source-check · Okanagan wildfire policy · Published August 19, 2026
Okanagan mayors want tougher wildfire penalties. What B.C. law already says — and what the human-caused fire numbers show
Mayor Tom Dyas says Okanagan leaders will push Victoria for tougher consequences when people start wildfires or ignore fire bans. BCFires checked the existing B.C. penalty framework and the wildfire-cause numbers behind the claim.
What the Facebook post says
The user-supplied Facebook lead resolved to a public photo post from Mayor Tom Dyas. It says “46 per cent of wildfires since 2021 were human-caused” and argues one reckless or deliberate act can put lives, homes, businesses and entire communities at risk when conditions are dry.
The post says Dyas, mayors from across the Central Okanagan, Westbank First Nation Chief Robert Louie and Regional District Chair Loyal Wooldridge will push the Province to implement harsher penalties. The attached graphic cites Castanet and quotes Dyas saying the consequences should reflect the seriousness of the impact.
What B.C. penalties already say
B.C.’s official Fire Prohibitions and Restrictions page says anyone contravening an open-fire prohibition may face a $1,150 ticket, a $10,000 administrative penalty, or, if convicted in court, a fine of up to $100,000 and/or up to one year in jail.
The same official page says that if a fire causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person may be fined up to $1 million, sentenced to up to three years in jail, and be responsible for firefighting and associated costs.
The Wildfire Act also has court-offence language. Section 43 says a person who intentionally or recklessly causes damage to Crown forest land or Crown grass land by starting a fire in contravention of key provisions is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000,000, imprisonment for not more than three years, or both. Section 27 allows administrative penalties and government fire-control cost recovery after contravention orders.
The 46% claim: what official annual data shows
| Year | Total fires | Human-caused | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,647 | 633 | 38% |
| 2022 | 1,801 | 578 | 32% |
| 2023 | 2,293 | 609 | 26% |
| 2024 | 1,697 | 511 | 30% |
| Weighted 2021-2024 | 7,438 | 2,331 | 31.3% |
That does not mean human-caused fires are small or unimportant. The official fire-prohibitions page says open fire is the largest cause of human-caused fires provincially, and that human-caused wildfires are entirely preventable. The point is that the mayoral 46% figure needs a cited dataset — for example a different date range, region, partial-season dashboard pull or local statistic — before readers treat it as the provincewide since-2021 number.
What stronger penalties could mean
The public policy question is not whether B.C. has penalties. It does. The real questions for Victoria are whether penalties are being used, whether repeat or deliberate offenders face enough risk, whether local governments can recover costs quickly, and whether cases that start evacuation alerts, structure loss or highway closures should trigger a different sentencing/cost-recovery track.
| Question | Record needed |
|---|---|
| How often are $1,150 tickets issued? | Annual violation-ticket counts by fire centre and contravention type. |
| How often are administrative penalties used? | Contravention-order and administrative-penalty database with outcomes. |
| How often does B.C. recover firefighting costs? | Cost-recovery orders, amounts assessed, amounts collected, appeals and write-offs. |
| Would “harsher penalties” mean new fines, mandatory minimums, more investigations, or better enforcement? | Draft legislation or ministry policy proposal. |
Bottom line
The Okanagan leaders’ warning is rooted in a real public-safety concern: preventable fires can drain firefighting resources and put people in danger. But B.C. already has serious legal tools on paper. The next accountability test is evidence: publish enforcement numbers, cost-recovery outcomes, and the dataset behind the 46% claim.