Governing wildfire risk in Atlantic Canada: Decision-makers perceptions and mitigation priorities

This study examines how elected officials, decision makers, and wildfire professionals perceive wildfire risk, including their values, planning priorities, and views on the acceptability of wildfire mitigation across the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Although funding and support for implementing FireSmart exist, a national program designed to help Canadians enhance community resilience to wildfires and reduce their adverse impacts, uptake of the program by officials and emergency professionals has been slower than hoped. To address these challenges, this research identifies key gaps in foundational knowledge that, once filled, can strengthen partnerships between local governments and wildfire mitigation experts and create more financially feasible pathways to mitigation implementation. We specifically focus on understanding how these actors make strategic choices in response to wildfire risk, how they weigh trade-offs associated with potential adverse outcomes, and the extent to which they feel empowered to shape mitigation efforts. In addition, officials’ and experts’ knowledge and use of tools derived from FireSmart is explored. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with elected officials, fire chiefs and senior officers from fire departments, urban planners, and emergency managers, this study assesses risk perceptions of wildfire across multiple institutional levels and explores how interviewees understand their department and personal roles and responsibilities in wildfire risk reduction. Anticipated findings include identifying themes related to institutional capacity, coordination, and differing interpretations of responsibility for mitigation, as well as determining how officials assess wildfire risk, prioritize mitigation, and understand their authority to act. These insights aim to support more targeted risk-communication and mitigation strategies in Atlantic Canada that may be replicated in similar boreal and Acadian Forest biome regions across Europe.