qathet Regional District directors review extreme heat plan

qathet Regional District’s board will consider receiving and endorsing recommendations of the qathet regional extreme heat response plan.

At the January 29 committee of the whole meeting, qRD directors considered the plan, researched and written by the consulting firm Tim Pley and Associates. A staff report indicates the cost of the exercise was about $75,000, which will be paid by a grant from the province, administered by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.

Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said when the matter of extreme heat events came up at a provincial conference, there was a presentation on cooling centres, liability and other considerations. He said when he went through the local plan, it seemed like a high-level plan.

“By adopting this plan, does this impose any significant liability or responsibility onto the regional district when we have a heat event?” asked Gisborne. “Where do we go from here if we adopt this?”

qRD general manager of emergency services Ryan Thoms said the matter of liability was a significant discussion point throughout the study, in all areas of the region. Thoms said the regional district is comfortable with the recommendations in the study in terms of the balance of need and liability.

“It does not obligate the local government to get into areas that are not its jurisdictional authority,” said Thoms. “We ensured that we looked at which level of government is responsible for what aspects, and when we are dealing with vulnerable populations, with emergency health matters being the principal concern, we have the support of three health authorities.

“It is possible for local governments to get involved in cooling centres, but we went to great lengths to explain we don’t have staff with expertise, and we wouldn’t call on volunteers.”

Electoral Area E director Andrew Fall said it was a good report and all the recommendations, except for one, he strongly supports. The recommendation in question stated that qRD should consider development and adoption of a building permit process, and provision of building inspection services, in order to ensure newly constructed and significantly renovated structures meet BC Building Code provisions, including those regarding cooling. Fall wanted to amend the motion for the board to receive and endorse the recommendations, to indicate the exception of one recommendation.

City director Rob Southcott said the building code is not going to go away if the regional district was to drop the recommendation in question as raised by Fall.

“Any person building reputably should know the building code,” said Southcott. “It has been amended recently with heating and cooling in mind. I trust people, if they are going to build, to read the building code, and builders know the code, so I support eliminating this from the recommendations.”

Fall’s amendment carried unanimously.

Electoral Area D director and committee chair Sandy McCormick said she likes the way the report has been developed, and that responsibility has been laid out clearly. She said health authorities are going to be the lead on all the situations, but the regional district can provide support. She said the report is not just about today, but is also about tomorrow, with retrofitting of existing buildings and adding air conditioning and other improvements.

“I’m very impressed with the plan, and communication is a very appropriate role for us to take on,” said McCormick. “I hope we never need to use this plan.”

The committee voted unanimously to recommend that the board receive and endorse the recommendations in the extreme heat response plan, as they apply to the regional emergency preparedness service contained within the plan, with exception of the item regarding building permits and building inspection services.

According to the plan, it does not call for the three qathet area governments to provide services that are the responsibility of other governments or agencies, but rather, sees them as support mediums and communicators of externally provided services and resources that would reinforce community resilience during extreme heat events. To assist them in this role, the plan includes a communications plan and links to a variety of resources created by provincial and health agencies. Some recommendations in this report call upon senior government agencies to act, according to the executive summary.

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