On the bluffs overlooking the Thompson River in central British Columbia (BC), a pilot project focused on strengthening community wildfire resilience through collaboration with Indigenous partners is under way.
In a joint initiative, the Ashcroft Indian Band—a community deeply impacted by the devastating 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire—is executing a comprehensive structural fire-hardening program to protect its residential housing.
Developed in partnership with Aviva Canada, BFL Canada, and the First Nations’ Emergency Services Society (FNESS), the pilot project offers an example of how a corporate-supported initiative can align with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Call to Action 92—which encourages the Canadian corporate sector to build respectful relationships and partnerships with Indigenous Peoples.
Wildfire embers cause sweeping damage
The Elephant Hill wildfire was one of the most destructive fires in BC history. It consumed almost 200,000 hectares of land, evacuated 50,000 people from their homes, and destroyed 211 homes and structures.
Nearly 10km from where the fire started sits the Ashcroft Indian Band, located within the unceded lands of the Nlaka’pamux traditional territory in BC’s south-central interior. The small First Nations community has about 270 registered members, most of whom live off reserve.
According to the National Collaborating Centres for Public Health, the 2017 wildfire destroyed 17 homes, left 12 families on the reserve homeless and kept most of the 77 on-reserve community members evacuated for 18 months.
While newly constructed replacement buildings have been built to modern, fire-resistant standards, 20 legacy homes remain vulnerable to radiant heat and airborne embers. Protecting these older structures requires understanding exactly how wildfires destroy property.
“When you have a major fire event, approximately 90% of the structural losses are ember-driven,” says Malina Garner, Mitigation Manager at FNESS.
“High winds push embers into a community like a blizzard of tiny fire particles. It becomes exceptionally difficult for structural fire departments to contain ignitions once those embers find vulnerabilities in a building’s exterior.”
Partnership addresses financial barrier to fire hardening
While many First Nations communities regularly undergo provincial FireSmart BC evaluations, the recommendations often stall at the planning stage. Housing on First Nations land is typically owned and managed directly by the band administration under a unified commercial structure. This means the local housing department must fund and execute mitigation across dozens of properties simultaneously, which can heavily strain local capital reserves.
The pilot project within the Ashcroft Indian Band is funded by Aviva in partnership with FNESS, which is working directly with local contractors and band members to execute the community’s outstanding FireSmart recommendations before the end of autumn.
The program is focusing on targeted engineering interventions that address primary building vulnerabilities and provide fire hardening properties such as:
- Aperture protection: Retrofitting homes with specialized non-combustible screening over vents to block airborne embers from entering interior building cavities, and ensuring there are non combustible soffits to prevent ember intrusion into the roof.
- Defensible barriers: Clearing shrubs and flammable vegetation directly adjacent to outer walls, replacing them with gravel perimeters to eliminate radiant heat transfer or direct flame contact.
- Structural sealing: Using fire-resistant caulking and patching materials to close exterior gaps, cracks, and joints where embers frequently collect and ignite.
Beyond immediate physical modifications, the project focuses on long-term operational resilience. FNESS technical teams are training community members to perform their own localized FireSmart assessments year-over-year, embedding the capacity for grassroots risk management directly within the band.
“You cannot easily measure a fire that doesn’t start, but you can measure what remains standing after an event,” said Garner.
“This program aims to provide peace of mind to residents during evacuations and give wildfire services a defensible space to operate safely if a fire rolls in rapidly.”
Supporting Indigenous partnerships and economic development
Aviva Canada currently insures many of the 620 First Nations across Canada, managing a property and automobile portfolio that comprises $50 million in written premium. As First Nations increasingly partner with private industry on forestry, mining, clean energy, and real estate projects, the need for insurance solutions that reflect these evolving business relationships has grown. Indigenous communities and their corporate entities represent an increasingly significant part of Canada’s economy.
By reducing the physical vulnerability of legacy housing on the reserve, the program aims to establish a repeatable framework that helps keep regional communities insurable and stable over the long term.
Evolving risk assessment and underwriting practices
Beyond on-the-ground mitigation, the partnership has served as an educational feedback loop for Aviva’s internal risk control and property underwriting teams. Collaborative engagement with FNESS has highlighted where traditional risk control frameworks fall short when evaluated through an Indigenous lens.
For example, standard commercial risk assessments might recommend clearing specific wooded areas to create a fire break. FNESS technical advisors have provided a different perspective, demonstrating the ecological and risk-mitigation value of maintaining and stewarding certain land tracts rather than executing clear-cuts.
“The program represents the realization of over two years of collaborative trust-building,” said Garner.
By transitioning from a reactive, claims-financing posture to a proactive model that actively alters the physical risk profile of an asset, the pilot aims to establish a repeatable framework for domestic community stability. For corporate entities and their brokers, it stands as a proof point that managing severe weather volatility and honouring commitments to economic reconciliation can be complementary
