With wildfires and flooding remaining perennial issues in the region, the provincial government of British Columbia is considering amending its emergency management laws to better adapt to and deal with such disasters.
Earlier this week, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said that the Emergency Program Act needs to be modernized, particularly after BC had just experienced flooding in Grand Forks and record-breaking wildfires in recent years.
The act – which has not been updated since 1993 – governs disaster risk management, outlining the roles and responsibilities for provincial and local governments in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from emergencies. It also lists the conditions under which governments can declare a state of emergency.
Farnworth said that the proposed changes to the law aim to signal a shift from disaster response to disaster mitigation.
“We need to lead the province in a direction that addresses current challenges and prepares us for the future,” the minister explained in a conference. “We need an emergency management system that does more than react to events. We need a system that builds on all four pillars of our work: preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery.”
A government discussion paper that summarizes proposed changes to the law will be introduced to the legislature next fall, The Canadian Press reported.
According to Farnworth, the report found that remote and Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by disaster. The new changes to the act will be created in partnership with community leaders in order to address this shortcoming.
