BANFF – The Town of Banff is hoping to light a fire under residents to replace their combustible roofs by increasing the municipal rebate.
Administration is asking council to consider increasing the incentive from $900 to $1,200 in a bid to meet the municipality’s goal to have all combustible roofs in town replaced by the end of 2027. The matter will be discussed at council’s March 13 meeting.
Coun. Chip Olver, a champion of the program since its inception in 2017, said the urban wildfire interface is on the edge of the Banff community, where there are many homes with wood shake roofs that burn easily.
“In a wildfire, if you lose one house, it’s such a traumatic impact on the community and those people involved, and one house often leads to more, and goes through a neighbourhood and has devastating personal, social and economic impacts,” she said.
“The replacement of those roofs just makes sense in order to take that risk away. The cost of replacement is significant to do it, and so I think a helping hand really makes a difference. It can protect whole neighbourhoods, the whole community.”
The biggest fire threat to the Banff townsite comes from the west or southwest, where the forest is older and thicker.
Effects of climate change on temperature, precipitation levels, and soil moisture are turning many forests into kindling and fires are expected to burn more frequently, with more intensity and become increasingly unpredictable.
Silvio Adamo, Banff’s fire chief and director of protective services, said the combustible roof program had very good uptake in the beginning, but fewer residents are taking up the grant offer more recently, likely because the annual funding allocation has not kept pace with inflation.
“Possible explanations for this decline could be related to capturing the early adopters, the pandemic impacts on supplies and incomes, and recently, a significant industry cost increase,” he said in a report going to council on March 13.
Adamo said the average price of a roof replacement in the Middle Springs area has increased from approximately $8,000 to $9,000 when the program started to $11,000 to $12,000.
“Currently, the $900 rebate is not as strong an incentive to replace a roof,” he said.
In 2016, a total of 325 homes were identified with wood shakes in town, with the vast majority located in areas that are deemed to be moderate and high wildlife risk zones, including the at-risk Middle Springs neighbourhoods.
To date, 114 property owners have participated in the program and replaced their combustible roofs, leaving 211 homes that still have wood shake roofs. While they are aesthetically pleasing, they burn more easily than asphalt roofs.
“At the current rate of uptake, the 10-year window of project completion will not be achieved,” said Adamo.
The new roof sprinkler program may increase mitigation measures for more combustible roofs, but Adamo worries that program may mean residents defer or not consider replacing their roofs.
“Replacement of combustible roofs is a more reliable long-term risk mitigation against wildfire ember spread,” he said.
With the current year’s budget of $22,950 for the program and a balance in reserve of unspent funds of $100,800, administration says the Town of Banff could provide $1,200 grants for up to 103 roof replacements in 2023.
