qathet Regional District’s (qRD) board will be asked to endorse a $30,000 application to Union of British Columbia Municipalities for the emergency operation centre (EOC).
At a March 1 qRD finance meeting, committee members were apprised in a report that community emergency preparedness funding (CEPF) will provide up to $30,000 toward eligible EOC training activities. The proposed EOC training activities would seek to improve qRD EOC capacity to meet Emergency Program Act requirements to provide the overall coordination in a major emergency and will also assist public preparedness by providing relevant training and information in support of the neighbourhood exercises, the report stated.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said seeing the staff report, and hearing at the recent Local Government Leadership Academy that there would be a potential update to the Emergency Program Act, he asked if any changes had been seen to the act and if it could potentially tie in with the grant application.
Manager of emergency services Ryan Thoms said the grant application was to continue the emergency program work that has been going on for several years now. He said there have been some strong suggestions there will be an enhanced new Emergency Program Act but the act or regulations have not yet been seen.
“We’re still in the status quo, waiting to see what comes next,” said Thoms.
Electoral Area A director Jason Lennox said it appeared that there had been multiple years of the program funding. He said qRD had also anticipated receiving these funds for 2023. He asked if the funds had been received on a regular basis.
Thoms said qRD has been successful every year since 2018 in receiving the funds to keep moving emergency operation centre training forward.
According to the staff report, since 2018, qRD has successfully accessed the CEPF EOC grant funding on four occasions, to support the purchase and installation of a backup electrical generator for the community services office on McCausland Road, and to support EOC staff and partner agencies’ training sessions and exercises, as well as public information regarding the region’s community evacuation plans and community notification system.
The report stated that the qRD’s regional emergency preparedness service currently is utilizing the 2022 CEPF EOC grant funding to support work, led by the qRD evacuation planning assistant, hosting a series of training/workshops throughout the region focused on raising awareness among local residents, community groups, and key agencies in activating specific community evacuation aspects of the region's emergency plans.
