B.C.’s Finance minister is exploring ways to change how the province budgets for wildfire seasons.

Carole James says the important thing is the province has the statutory authority to spend whatever it takes to deal with each wildfire season as it comes.

That said James adds it is not ideal to have a placeholder amount that is often much lower than each year’s firefighting costs.

But she adds it is also impossible to accurately budget for an unknown.

“I think that is the challenge,” she said. “Used as an average obviously the average will go up because of the last two years.”

“I think we will certainly take that into consideration. Whether it is the Chapman/Abbott report that came forward or other reports that have really noted how important it will be to do the prevention work. To really get to supporting communities.”

James says prevention is also key, noting an increase in prescribed burns while adding that more work on that front to come.

Last summer $64-million was allocated to tackle wildfires. The final bill was $572-million.