BEPPLE – Local governments need funding for new emergency measures

AS STEPHEN KING said, “there’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.”

This week, the provincial government introduced new emergency management legislation. Major wildfires, atmospheric rivers, heat domes and winter storms have taken their toll on B.C. over the last few years.

The provincial government undertook the task of updating and revising the legislation for emergency management, with an aim of risk minimization.

The current Emergency Program Act had its roots in the 1914 War Measures Act. Mass evacuations, destructions of towns and hamlets, and stretched resources all made it necessary to look at how we do things. Hence the Modernized Emergency Management legislation brought forward this week.

It’s good news that the emergency management legislation is getting updated by the B.C. provincial government. But as with many things, it will be the local governments who will put much of the legislation into action.

In the spring, at a local government meeting, myself and other local government politicians from the southern Interior raised concerns to provincial government representatives. For example, will it be up to local taxpayers, through property taxes, to pay for new requirements for managing critical infrastructure, sharing information and training emergency personnel?

The City of Kamloops might be able to absorb the added requirements from the province, but smaller towns such as Cache Creek, Chase or Barriere, with much smaller tax bases and much fewer staff numbers, will have a much more difficult time adding additional services.

That’s not to say that its not important to prepare for, avoid, and mitigate against emergencies. Better emergency management is better in the long run.

It takes months or years to recover from disasters. Merritt and Lytton are years away from their disasters and still rebuilding. Eventually infrastructure gets rebuilt, but individuals’ losses can be catastrophic and absolute. Some individuals will never rebuild.

The modernized emergency act could be renamed the “climate change is making things much worse” emergency act. Going forward, everything is pointing to continued fierce wildfires, stronger winter storms, and higher risks of floods.

Communities need better tools for planning to be prepared for disasters, for reacting during incidents, and support of individuals impacted short and long term.

The legislation is meant to ensure better response to future emergencies. But a big concern must be the capacities of communities, especially smaller communities, to meet the requirements. Smaller communities do not have the financial resources of larger centres. Nor do they have large staff numbers to implement the changes.

As the province looks to improve response to future emergencies, first and foremost should be to support local governments both with guaranteed funding to pay for the changes required by the new legislation, and sharing of technical expertise to allow the legislation to be implemented in all parts of the province, in big centres and in small.

Nancy Bepple is a Kamloops City councillor with a strong interest in community building projects.