1 00:00:01,650 --> 00:00:16,230 I'm going to call the meeting to order and say, take it away. Do we need to adopt agendas and all that? Okay. I'll accept an omnibus motion to, I don't know, approve the agenda. 2 00:00:18,950 --> 00:00:19,850 There you go. 3 00:00:26,890 --> 00:00:27,950 Well, that's a good start. 4 00:00:30,250 --> 00:00:33,450 Okay, so I heard moved and seconded is what I heard. 5 00:00:33,750 --> 00:00:36,390 So, all 6 00:00:39,110 --> 00:00:40,250 those and what's that? 7 00:00:41,290 --> 00:00:42,730 Yeah, I thought so. 8 00:00:43,190 --> 00:00:44,950 Parliamentarian, what the hell are you doing? 9 00:00:47,290 --> 00:00:48,450 Okay, all those in favor? 10 00:00:48,670 --> 00:00:49,010 Opposed? 11 00:00:49,250 --> 00:00:49,390 None? 12 00:00:49,790 --> 00:00:50,070 Carried. 13 00:00:50,070 --> 00:00:54,770 All right, so it's the emergency management elected official training. 14 00:00:56,270 --> 00:00:57,110 Take it away. 15 00:00:57,490 --> 00:00:58,490 Thank you, Overship. 16 00:00:58,910 --> 00:01:02,470 I'm just going to introduce two guests that we have in Chambers this evening. 17 00:01:03,030 --> 00:01:05,310 We've got our emergency program, Andrew, Lisa Banfield. 18 00:01:05,690 --> 00:01:09,650 And of course we have Chad Patrick from Logically Consulting. 19 00:01:10,010 --> 00:01:12,370 He's going to be doing the presentation this evening. 20 00:01:12,990 --> 00:01:18,130 Chad's supported us over several years with lots of consulting work if some of you may recognize 21 00:01:18,130 --> 00:01:23,990 from the big efforts that we did last year in our wildfire scenario that we did back in June. 22 00:01:24,610 --> 00:01:33,670 There's so very familiar with our region and in area and has lots of experience and emergency management prior to consulting work, worked with EMBC there as well. 23 00:01:33,890 --> 00:01:36,650 So thank you, and you're all ears now. Thanks, Ted. 24 00:01:38,990 --> 00:01:39,670 Thanks, Chief. 25 00:01:40,030 --> 00:01:46,990 I'm just going to flip around and share my screens that you can all hopefully see what I'm presenting. 26 00:01:48,510 --> 00:01:50,830 of course I can't do that before all 27 00:02:04,490 --> 00:02:12,690 right so thanks for having you this this evening and I will be talking about emergency management and disaster risk management today for all of you. 28 00:02:13,510 --> 00:02:21,690 Appreciate your time on this issue and the the dedication that central sandwich continues to show in this realm I would say. 29 00:02:21,690 --> 00:02:25,210 Okay, so I usually start with why are we here? 30 00:02:25,370 --> 00:02:30,130 I think Mother Nature helped me out today with a little bit of snow on, what are we February 31 00:02:32,830 --> 00:02:33,310 26th? 32 00:02:33,350 --> 00:02:37,630 Thank you for that, but really the disaster is just keep coming. 33 00:02:38,430 --> 00:02:43,590 We're learning all kinds of new words like, you know, bomb cyclone and drought omega blocks 34 00:02:43,590 --> 00:02:49,790 atmospheric rivers, all these things that meteorologists claim the words existed before 35 00:02:49,790 --> 00:02:50,850 and they're not making up. 36 00:02:50,850 --> 00:02:55,850 So we'll have to believe them, but they keep happening is really what it comes down to. 37 00:02:56,470 --> 00:03:00,870 And realistically local governments have a huge role to play in disasters. 38 00:03:01,670 --> 00:03:05,590 And so that's where you guys come in as the chief alluded to. 39 00:03:05,730 --> 00:03:10,630 We've done a bunch of training with staff and a couple of big exercises in the last couple 40 00:03:10,630 --> 00:03:10,930 of years. 41 00:03:11,610 --> 00:03:12,990 And now it's your guys' turn. 42 00:03:15,780 --> 00:03:19,500 As I get into this, I turn it over to you to start. 43 00:03:19,500 --> 00:03:26,780 Is there anything that keeps you up in the middle of the night and I have to add now after a past presentation as it relates to emergencies? 44 00:03:30,620 --> 00:03:31,180 If 45 00:03:36,110 --> 00:03:41,870 you wish, certainly the unknown the the what we're not considering or what we're not 46 00:03:42,670 --> 00:03:44,350 anticipating and it seems like 47 00:03:45,130 --> 00:03:46,470 That's usually what hits 48 00:03:47,550 --> 00:03:49,970 You know, I didn't anticipate eat don't 49 00:03:51,370 --> 00:04:00,990 So much other stuff that occurs, the volume of water that washes out infrastructure may 50 00:04:00,990 --> 00:04:05,430 not be an overall emergency might be for certain areas, but I think we see that. 51 00:04:06,190 --> 00:04:07,090 Yeah, absolutely. 52 00:04:07,590 --> 00:04:12,350 I mean, you know, if we look at some of the trajectories of climate change, you know, overall we're 53 00:04:12,350 --> 00:04:16,650 going to get less water over the year, but what we do is give you more condensed. 54 00:04:16,650 --> 00:04:22,830 And so those fallen winter seasons, we're going to have the actual rainfall during those seasons will go up. 55 00:04:23,190 --> 00:04:27,170 So those types of events like the atmospheric river could go up. 56 00:04:27,690 --> 00:04:32,730 I mean, as an emergency manager, I remember the beginning of the pandemic and going, okay, 57 00:04:32,870 --> 00:04:35,730 like a couple of weeks, a month, we'll be over it. 58 00:04:36,750 --> 00:04:40,850 I can admit that I did not see that coming how long that was going to hang around. 59 00:04:40,850 --> 00:04:43,830 and wildfire on the mountain in Cleveland. 60 00:04:44,190 --> 00:04:46,110 That's a big concern for a lot of folks. 61 00:04:46,530 --> 00:04:50,270 Absolutely, yeah, I mean we're not without our hazards 62 00:04:50,270 --> 00:04:51,950 in this area, that's for sure. 63 00:04:52,610 --> 00:04:53,550 Thank you for indulging me. 64 00:04:54,770 --> 00:04:56,890 So today I'm going tonight, I'm going to present 65 00:04:56,890 --> 00:04:59,310 just a little bit of context and if you will, 66 00:04:59,430 --> 00:05:01,790 some theory around emergency and disaster management. 67 00:05:02,230 --> 00:05:04,590 I'll talk about how we structure in British Columbia 68 00:05:04,590 --> 00:05:07,930 specifically so that we know how we all fit in 69 00:05:07,930 --> 00:05:09,750 to the zoo and it's an emergency. 70 00:05:10,850 --> 00:05:14,430 We have some new legislation that came into effect in BC 71 00:05:14,970 --> 00:05:16,690 in November of last year. 72 00:05:17,170 --> 00:05:18,410 So we'll talk a little bit about that. 73 00:05:18,970 --> 00:05:20,690 And then some of the roles and expectations 74 00:05:20,690 --> 00:05:21,790 of the policy group. 75 00:05:21,930 --> 00:05:23,410 Spoiler alert, if you guys don't know, 76 00:05:23,970 --> 00:05:26,910 you will usually make up the policy group 77 00:05:27,450 --> 00:05:30,270 as we refer to it in emergency management 78 00:05:30,270 --> 00:05:31,570 and I'll get into what that means. 79 00:05:33,050 --> 00:05:35,990 So I'll spend kind of the first half of my time 80 00:05:35,990 --> 00:05:37,470 talking about that. 81 00:05:37,870 --> 00:05:39,030 And then I'm gonna flip it over. 82 00:05:39,030 --> 00:05:44,410 I'm going to leave hopefully lots of time for questions and then get into a little bit of an exercise 83 00:05:44,410 --> 00:05:50,470 Which is really just me peppering you with questions that you may get during an emergency and and it's fun for me 84 00:05:51,730 --> 00:05:55,810 So with all of that said a little bit of context and again 85 00:05:55,810 --> 00:06:01,090 This is a kind of a little bit of the theory of of emergency management and again, I start off with a question 86 00:06:02,110 --> 00:06:08,790 Looking back to 2021 a fun year for emergencies. How many natural disasters do you think there were in 87 00:06:08,790 --> 00:06:16,730 BC in 2021 and I made a multiple choice so it's either none one to five six to ten or 88 00:06:16,730 --> 00:06:21,150 more than ten. Who's brave and wants to more than ten? 89 00:06:23,270 --> 00:06:24,050 Anybody else? 90 00:06:27,140 --> 00:06:29,040 But he said so 91 00:06:31,410 --> 00:06:31,910 far 92 00:06:31,910 --> 00:06:34,130 where more than ten. Anybody have a different answer than more than ten? 93 00:06:37,090 --> 00:06:37,790 One to five. You just 94 00:06:37,790 --> 00:06:38,790 want to be different. Got it. 95 00:06:40,870 --> 00:06:44,650 So I'm going to admit I set you up a little bit. The answer really 96 00:06:44,650 --> 00:06:53,410 is done. And there you go. Closer to going over, isn't that the rules? So, really, it 97 00:06:53,410 --> 00:06:58,110 comes down to the fact that there is no such thing as a natural disaster. Again, I set you 98 00:06:58,110 --> 00:07:04,370 up with the wording that I used. But disasters, they often follow natural hazards. And it may 99 00:07:04,370 --> 00:07:09,210 seem like I'm just cutting hairs and, you know, playing with words and being, you know, funny 100 00:07:09,210 --> 00:07:14,170 that way. But I think the words that we use matter, because when you frame it as a natural 101 00:07:14,170 --> 00:07:19,870 disaster? It's really easy to go, oh, what can I do? It's just a natural disaster. I can't overcome 102 00:07:19,870 --> 00:07:27,290 nature. Whereas the fact is, really, disasters are a result. Disasters are a result of where we build, 103 00:07:27,850 --> 00:07:33,510 of where the societies we create, where we create them, the systems that we have, the disasters, 104 00:07:33,930 --> 00:07:38,870 that's what makes it. A hazard into itself, you know, if it just rains and it flows off and it 105 00:07:38,870 --> 00:07:40,670 it doesn't impact anything, it was just rain, 106 00:07:40,870 --> 00:07:41,690 it wasn't a disaster. 107 00:07:43,110 --> 00:07:44,870 This is, I mean, a conversation that's going, 108 00:07:44,910 --> 00:07:46,910 been going on since the late seventies 109 00:07:47,430 --> 00:07:51,490 and I think is gaining more and more traction now. 110 00:07:52,090 --> 00:07:56,690 And so I leave that conversation or this idea with you 111 00:07:56,690 --> 00:08:00,710 as those that may be responsible for being 112 00:08:00,710 --> 00:08:04,410 spokespeople in an emergency or a disaster 113 00:08:04,410 --> 00:08:08,590 to try and avoid using the term natural disaster. 114 00:08:08,930 --> 00:08:11,550 It is a disaster, is a natural hazard, 115 00:08:12,190 --> 00:08:15,510 but to date, nobody has been able to challenge me 116 00:08:15,510 --> 00:08:18,190 for something that is a natural disaster. 117 00:08:18,550 --> 00:08:20,530 We can arm wrestle after if you want to try. 118 00:08:22,210 --> 00:08:25,630 So again, a framing of where we're going. 119 00:08:26,530 --> 00:08:28,570 So what is disaster risk then? 120 00:08:29,470 --> 00:08:33,050 There's a definition set out by UN Office 121 00:08:33,050 --> 00:08:37,890 for disaster risk reduction. I'll let you read that on your own. But what I like to focus on 122 00:08:37,890 --> 00:08:42,630 is really the the equation at the bottom. And if there's any engineers in the room, I apologize, 123 00:08:43,050 --> 00:08:48,710 don't try and insert numbers into this equation. It's more of a you know a conceptual framework. 124 00:08:49,910 --> 00:08:56,750 And it really is the interaction of these four pieces. The hazard, so the flood, the fire, the 125 00:08:56,750 --> 00:09:00,950 the locusts, the pandemic, all of those things are the hazard. 126 00:09:01,790 --> 00:09:07,650 But they only become a disaster in if there are vulnerabilities and if there are exposures. 127 00:09:07,970 --> 00:09:12,470 So the vulnerabilities can be social, economic, all of those kind of different pieces of 128 00:09:12,470 --> 00:09:12,990 vulnerability. 129 00:09:13,270 --> 00:09:16,990 The exposure is, you know, if there's a tsunami, are you right on the beach or are you 130 00:09:16,990 --> 00:09:18,470 at the top of the hill? 131 00:09:18,970 --> 00:09:20,810 That will determine your exposure. 132 00:09:22,130 --> 00:09:25,410 The flip side of all of that is the capacities. 133 00:09:25,410 --> 00:09:30,750 So the capacities can be coping capacities to help you get through something if it happens 134 00:09:30,750 --> 00:09:36,930 or adaptive capacities to try and, you know, make the best of it and avoid it from happening 135 00:09:36,930 --> 00:09:37,550 in the first place. 136 00:09:38,170 --> 00:09:44,030 So in everything that we do, we want to increase our capacities and decrease our vulnerabilities 137 00:09:44,030 --> 00:09:45,110 and exposures. 138 00:09:45,590 --> 00:09:51,130 For the most part, you know, unless we're talking long-range climate change and climate adaptation 139 00:09:51,130 --> 00:09:54,930 efforts, there isn't really a lot we can do about the hazard itself. 140 00:09:54,930 --> 00:10:00,810 I argue. So in terms of a local authority focusing on what are the vulnerabilities, the exposures, 141 00:10:00,810 --> 00:10:03,590 and the capacities that we're either creating or mitigating. 142 00:10:06,980 --> 00:10:14,940 Next, two theories, or I guess concepts, around compounding risk and cascading risk. And 143 00:10:14,940 --> 00:10:18,900 so in the last couple of years we've seen a lot more examples of this. So the compounding 144 00:10:18,900 --> 00:10:24,600 risk is really just the added of effect, where one or more hazards or disasters building 145 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:27,520 holding on top of each other make it worse than one by themselves. 146 00:10:28,700 --> 00:10:31,160 The cascading is like that toppling dominoes. 147 00:10:31,260 --> 00:10:33,780 One thing leads to the next, leads to the next, leads to the next. 148 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:40,760 So the example that I would give is if we have increased heat waves, we have more droughts, 149 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:46,000 we have dry lightning, we're going to have increased quantity and intensity of wildfires. 150 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:49,560 So it just sets the conditions for that next thing to happen. 151 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:51,300 So it compounds and gets bigger and worse. 152 00:10:51,900 --> 00:10:54,040 I'm great news tonight, aren't I? 153 00:10:55,060 --> 00:10:58,260 The toppling dominoes, I'll pick on COVID tonight. 154 00:10:59,020 --> 00:11:00,200 So COVID-19 happened. 155 00:11:00,820 --> 00:11:04,700 We noticed a decrease in workforce or availability of workforce. 156 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:07,480 That led to some of our supply chain issues. 157 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:09,280 That led to increased demand. 158 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:10,960 That led to inflation. 159 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:12,960 Anybody that's still on a floating mortgage, 160 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:16,200 knows that that led to increased interest rates. 161 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:21,800 Now, it's hard to draw lines straight and say COVID-19 caused increased interest rates. 162 00:11:22,380 --> 00:11:26,380 But if you follow those toppling dominoes, you can see the effect that it can have. 163 00:11:26,980 --> 00:11:33,240 So again, just a way of framing disasters and how we approach it and from a planning mitigation 164 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:38,060 perspective, having this in the back of your mind is, you know, you're looking at development 165 00:11:38,060 --> 00:11:39,000 permit, for example. 166 00:11:41,180 --> 00:11:46,040 I'm almost done with my theory, but I want to talk about the idea of systemic risks. 167 00:11:46,040 --> 00:12:01,480 And I think the, you know, COVID really highlighted this concept of systemic risks, and I'll pick on supply chains, for example, you know, for all of a sudden during COVID, everybody needed a year's worth of toilet paper in, you know, a month. 168 00:12:02,100 --> 00:12:07,780 And, you know, the whole supply chain system fell down. We couldn't keep up as it were. 169 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:13,940 And, you know, it just highlights when one thing, one cog in that puzzle falls apart. 170 00:12:13,940 --> 00:12:19,700 the whole system can unravel. So it's really about those interconnections and with globalization 171 00:12:19,700 --> 00:12:25,580 and, you know, those single points are failure that we're building towards with single suppliers, 172 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:32,480 et cetera, that it becomes a lot more fragile. And so I think this is, you know, larger than the 173 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:41,760 municipality, but the municipality has to play within the system as well. Can I jump in for 174 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:48,180 For example, here in Central Sanage, yes, there's the pandemic and how that affected everybody 175 00:12:48,180 --> 00:12:49,020 all over the world. 176 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:56,020 But here in Central Sanage, when we looked at the atmospheric river in 2021, with the 177 00:12:56,020 --> 00:13:00,740 Malahat having the wash out supply chain with gas. 178 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:02,860 There was shortage. 179 00:13:03,100 --> 00:13:11,740 We had lineups of traffic outside the fire hall and what congestion that caused also, you 180 00:13:11,740 --> 00:13:15,860 stranded in Brentwood Bay and trying to keep those residents and those people warm at 181 00:13:15,860 --> 00:13:19,420 night, so going out and looking after them and trying to get them up and down the 182 00:13:19,420 --> 00:13:25,620 islands. So that affected us here in Central Sandwich and nobody else within the region. 183 00:13:27,650 --> 00:13:30,930 Yeah, great example, and I'll probably lean on that one again. 184 00:13:33,380 --> 00:13:34,480 So that leads us right 185 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:41,080 to talking about disaster risk management and disaster risk reduction. And really, I boiled 186 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:46,500 that down to three different pieces. And, you know, if I had my magic one could inception 187 00:13:46,500 --> 00:13:51,400 ideas that stay in your mind for the rest of time, it would be to think about these three 188 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:57,840 things. How do we avoid creating new risk? How do we reduce the risk that was already created 189 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:03,140 in the past? And how do we manage that risk that we can't get rid of? Because there will always 190 00:14:03,140 --> 00:14:07,060 be something that happens. Unfortunately, there will always be disasters of some sort. 191 00:14:07,060 --> 00:14:10,660 And that's where, you know, some of the emergency management work comes in. 192 00:14:12,140 --> 00:14:17,240 But beforehand, again, that avoiding and reducing the risk, I think, is really important. 193 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:23,480 And I think the industry is really shifting to pay attention to those sides of it, 194 00:14:23,540 --> 00:14:28,520 whereas before we've been really focused on picking up the pieces afterwards, if you will. 195 00:14:31,210 --> 00:14:35,270 I pulled out this quote from the Global Assessment Report. It was a UN report 196 00:14:35,270 --> 00:14:40,390 that gets published I believe every year. This one was from 2022 and it just reinforces that 197 00:14:40,390 --> 00:14:44,450 doing more of the same isn't going to be enough. We need to change the way that we do things. 198 00:14:45,290 --> 00:14:48,470 I don't think this is a revolutionary statement for anybody in the room here, 199 00:14:48,870 --> 00:14:52,110 but just reinforcing from this context as well. 200 00:14:55,130 --> 00:14:59,010 So in BC, we organized ourselves in a pretty 201 00:14:59,010 --> 00:14:59,770 specific way. 202 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:29,580 And it's built, sorry, I've added another slide. I'll first talk about the kind of timeline of emergency management. And so on our horizontal access, we have the time. On the vertical access, we have the level of effort. So we have some bad event that happens in atmospheric river pandemic, etc, whatever it is. And we have a large surge of effort right away. And we call that the response. That's, you know, when the fire trucks roll paramedics, public works, 203 00:15:29,580 --> 00:15:33,320 all of those people try and respond and alleviate the disaster. 204 00:15:33,900 --> 00:15:41,420 At the same time, the municipality is trying to recover and make sure that all of your services are going to be able to continue at the same time. 205 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:45,700 Related to that is the idea of business continuity. 206 00:15:46,420 --> 00:15:52,880 Very closely linked, I'm not going to get into the nuances of the difference, but really trying to return your services to operational. 207 00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:58,900 The other piece that is more of that slow burn is the yellow on the bottom is the community 208 00:15:58,900 --> 00:15:59,500 recovery. 209 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:04,920 Again, notice that it should start right when that event starts and it continues on 210 00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:05,500 for the longest. 211 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:09,100 It can, you know, I'd say months would be short for recovery. 212 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:15,520 But realistically, you're probably in the magnitude of years in large disasters, it can be decades 213 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:20,820 for the community to fully recover and, you know, defining what that even is has become 214 00:16:20,820 --> 00:16:26,900 really difficult as well. Before the event, we want to try and assess the risks. We want 215 00:16:26,900 --> 00:16:31,400 to try and prepare for it. We want to try and mitigate against them. I believe you guys 216 00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:37,980 have a project starting relatively soon to do a bunch of this work. Or sorry, updates, 217 00:16:38,140 --> 00:16:44,240 not that you haven't done it before, update with the new context of really the world that we're 218 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:49,560 dealing with. The piece that's missing, this is traditionally what that graph looks like. 219 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:57,040 Like I like to add in prevention as a specific goal that goes right through all that timeline 220 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,900 that we should be trying, always trying to prevent emergencies from happening. 221 00:17:02,300 --> 00:17:07,560 So with all of that said, we base our responses on something called the instant command system. 222 00:17:07,900 --> 00:17:14,420 It was a system that was built out of California based on a really big wildfire that for lack 223 00:17:14,420 --> 00:17:16,520 a better way of saying it went pretty poorly. 224 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:22,040 There wasn't a lot of coordination, there was a lot of response organizations, and unfortunately 225 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:27,180 there was, you know, additional people that perished in the fire and more structures 226 00:17:27,180 --> 00:17:31,080 and infrastructure that was lost because of that lack of communication and coordination. 227 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:36,520 So the instant command system was meant to be able to pull people together, whether it 228 00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:38,340 was a really small event or a large event. 229 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:45,060 And so that is the flexibility and the commonality of it makes it a lot easier to work and 230 00:17:45,060 --> 00:17:50,040 emergency management. You know, I can walk into your emergency operation center or, you know, 231 00:17:50,180 --> 00:17:56,380 Sanchez, North Sanchez Sydney, they're all the same structure. So it makes it easy to also have 232 00:17:56,380 --> 00:18:02,840 staff support each other's municipalities. In British Columbia, we created another acronym 233 00:18:02,840 --> 00:18:07,940 based on the instant command system called the British Columbia Emergency Management System, 234 00:18:08,140 --> 00:18:14,160 B-SEMS. And what I want to pull out for you guys for that is these response schools. And from top 235 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:19,720 to bottom what it does is help prioritize decisions. When you have multiple things in front 236 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:22,900 of you and you're trying to figure out what we do, do we do this one first or that one, 237 00:18:23,540 --> 00:18:29,020 this list can help you prioritize where you start even. And so it starts with the health 238 00:18:29,020 --> 00:18:33,740 and safety of all responders so that we can make sure that that response continues. From 239 00:18:33,740 --> 00:18:38,560 then, from there, hopefully it becomes quite obvious, you know, we want to save lives, reduce 240 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:43,720 suffering, public health, et cetera, you work your way down the list. What I do find is 241 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:48,820 Because as you get lower and lower on that list, it can become harder and harder to differentiate 242 00:18:48,820 --> 00:18:50,080 and to prioritize. 243 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:57,860 I often see some of the economic and social priorities being elevated above the environmental 244 00:18:57,860 --> 00:19:03,840 losses and what I would try and remind those that are involved in an emergency is that when 245 00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:08,520 we lose the environment, there are economic costs of that, there are social costs of that, 246 00:19:09,120 --> 00:19:11,980 they're just realized over a longer time frame. 247 00:19:11,980 --> 00:19:18,620 So all of that to say, there are, this is one tool to help make decisions during an emergency. 248 00:19:19,780 --> 00:19:24,340 And so when you're faced with questions from your emergency operation center going, 249 00:19:24,780 --> 00:19:26,300 we need a decision from you. 250 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:32,160 You can refer back to this or ask them to provide you a copy of it so you can refer back to 251 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:32,340 it. 252 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:38,340 The other piece about the British Columbia Emergency Management System that I want to emphasize 253 00:19:38,340 --> 00:19:40,360 is kind of these levels of support. 254 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:45,240 And so this pyramid is set up because the site operations, your fire police, your 255 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:50,180 evidence, public works, et cetera, they go out all the time, arguably on a daily basis 256 00:19:50,180 --> 00:19:51,120 to deal with emergencies. 257 00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:53,560 That's why they make up the base of this pyramid. 258 00:19:54,380 --> 00:19:59,080 When they need support and help, an emergency operation center can be activated. 259 00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:04,720 And so that is out of your guys' fire hall, and you have a great system set up there. 260 00:20:05,340 --> 00:20:10,340 Each municipality can set up their own emergency operation center, BC Ferries, BC Hyatt, 261 00:20:10,340 --> 00:20:14,520 all of those they have their own as well, and it's really supporting those on this site. 262 00:20:15,740 --> 00:20:19,380 When an emergency operation center needs assistance, they can turn to the province. 263 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:24,020 And the first level of support of the province is the provincial regional emergency operation center. 264 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:30,380 I'm not expecting you to remember all of these, but if you, you know, twig it in the emergency that I was talking about these. 265 00:20:31,300 --> 00:20:36,500 For us, it is the, they cover the Vancouver, whole Vancouver Island and central coast area. 266 00:20:36,500 --> 00:20:39,080 They're located actually on Keating Crossroad. 267 00:20:40,780 --> 00:20:42,320 There's six of them across the province. 268 00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:47,540 I don't think I need to go in too much further than that, but they are a good phone 269 00:20:47,540 --> 00:20:47,940 of friend. 270 00:20:48,220 --> 00:20:54,460 They also will be your first line of defense for requesting resources and financial approvals 271 00:20:54,460 --> 00:20:55,460 from the province. 272 00:20:59,780 --> 00:21:00,520 I think so. 273 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:07,380 I mean, it's a, you know, you laugh a little bit, but the value of that is if communications 274 00:21:07,380 --> 00:21:08,660 were to go down fully. 275 00:21:08,660 --> 00:21:15,200 You guys are just driving down Keening Crossroad, whereas somebody on Central Coast doesn't have that opportunity. 276 00:21:16,460 --> 00:21:20,260 So, I mean, it would take a lot to get to that point. 277 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:25,160 Other than that, the only other advantage that I see is the availability of staff. 278 00:21:25,820 --> 00:21:33,600 For your guys' big USC exercise last year, you had a bunch of provincial staff that came and were able to support, observe and provide their inputs. 279 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:35,420 So, there are advantages, I think. 280 00:21:35,420 --> 00:21:42,500 I think co-located in that same location is the Provincial Emergency Coordination Center, 281 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:50,000 PECC. They support those six pre-OX and the all the ministries in the province during 282 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:56,400 an disaster. As it means how we don't have, I would say, really any interaction with the 283 00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:02,100 PECC itself, we go through the pre-OX. I think the last thing that I would say about that 284 00:22:02,100 --> 00:22:07,540 That is, if we wanted to bring in the military, often that, you know, during floods, they 285 00:22:07,540 --> 00:22:09,200 want to fill sandbags or things like that. 286 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:15,760 It starts at the site, oh, we need some help, then it goes to the UOC, up to the PUCC, 287 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:20,280 they go to the feds, they go down to the military, it gets approved, it goes back up, it comes 288 00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:25,540 back down, and I make it sound like a really big process, but that can happen surprisingly 289 00:22:25,540 --> 00:22:26,120 fast. 290 00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:31,340 You know, there is a system to it, but it actually does work quite well. 291 00:22:31,340 --> 00:22:37,240 Well, I would like to ask how long did it take for us to organize that for 2021? 292 00:22:39,060 --> 00:22:39,700 Very long. 293 00:22:40,060 --> 00:22:46,540 No, I mean, I'd say we started talking about it and I'm just going to say day one, it wasn't 294 00:22:46,540 --> 00:22:50,960 the first day of the flood, but day one we started talking to the province saying, hey, we 295 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:52,560 might need this day two. 296 00:22:52,740 --> 00:22:57,540 We had confirmation that basically a bunch of sailors were going to be sent to us, and 297 00:22:57,540 --> 00:23:02,600 And that next morning, and I think it was a, we requested, I think, 15 or 15 people. 298 00:23:03,380 --> 00:23:10,600 A full bus came with 50 ought people ready to basically be tasked with whatever we needed. 299 00:23:11,060 --> 00:23:15,220 And that was the next day, and willing to come the next day and the next day. 300 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,060 So the calls do go out quite quickly. 301 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:25,520 I'd say with us with the naval base, if we really needed possibly that later that day. 302 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:29,060 but definitely the next day we could, we could get resources on site, I think. 303 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:36,680 And just for clarity, that was for the wash out to support Wessonic First Nations. 304 00:23:37,420 --> 00:23:42,160 And we, like Chad said, we had a bus load and it was all set up in our public work chart. 305 00:23:46,340 --> 00:23:50,840 Very quickly, another way to visualize that pyramid is I think of this as a button. 306 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,180 So in the center is that site response. 307 00:23:53,180 --> 00:23:55,840 So in something bad happens, that center button gets pushed. 308 00:23:55,840 --> 00:24:01,840 As you need more support, you just push harder and harder on that button and more and more of those layers get activated. 309 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:07,140 So just another way of thinking about how everybody fits into the puzzle and the pieces. 310 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:16,700 Organizationally, I'm not going to go through the whole org chart, but what I find important here is there are set structures. 311 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:24,040 You know, the org chart looks the same regardless of what organization you're in. The colors are the same so that, you know, 312 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:29,120 I know you won't remember all the colors, but on the day of, you start orienting yourself 313 00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:32,940 to the colors because you may not know everybody that's in, say, the planning section or 314 00:24:32,940 --> 00:24:33,940 the operations section. 315 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:37,240 So that, I find that really helpful. 316 00:24:37,860 --> 00:24:43,060 What I highlight on this is that the top of that policy group, again, that's that high-level 317 00:24:43,060 --> 00:24:43,500 direction. 318 00:24:43,900 --> 00:24:49,120 So the policy group, in most municipalities, made up of the elected officials, sometimes senior 319 00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:51,040 management involved in that as well. 320 00:24:51,760 --> 00:25:01,280 And again, those are the sticky questions that the EOC either can't or doesn't feel comfortable answering that would come and get elevated to the policy group. 321 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,540 We'll get into some of what those questions might look like in a little bit. 322 00:25:07,110 --> 00:25:11,410 This was just to highlight that expandable nature of the org chart. 323 00:25:11,510 --> 00:25:14,970 Of course, you know, all these things can expand and contract as necessary. 324 00:25:15,470 --> 00:25:21,350 So, you know, it's not unheard of to have an EOC that is, you know, one or two people. 325 00:25:21,350 --> 00:25:26,270 On the flip side of that, there are municipal EOCs that I've seen that are 40 or 50 people. 326 00:25:27,430 --> 00:25:31,390 So it can really vary depending on the event and the scope and the scale. 327 00:25:34,270 --> 00:25:41,630 So the rule of elected officials during an emergency, the first piece, maintain your situational 328 00:25:41,630 --> 00:25:47,870 awareness which is our jargon way of saying what's going on, why do I care and what might 329 00:25:47,870 --> 00:25:48,730 happen in the future. 330 00:25:48,730 --> 00:25:53,730 If you can start to answer those questions, you've built your so-called situational awareness. 331 00:25:54,350 --> 00:25:59,630 You'll get that from a variety of sources, you know, whether it's the emergency program 332 00:25:59,630 --> 00:26:05,450 that you'll see if it's activated, Facebook, all the social media, all the regular sources 333 00:26:05,450 --> 00:26:11,150 that you get, Christina, Suspect will be contacting you and giving you updates. 334 00:26:11,730 --> 00:26:13,610 You'll be getting it from multiple different sources. 335 00:26:14,110 --> 00:26:18,130 You may not be getting it as fast as you want, but that's not because it's being with 336 00:26:18,130 --> 00:26:22,330 held for a year, it's because it's being tried to be gathered and sourced and all that. 337 00:26:23,410 --> 00:26:28,090 A men-to-creature of our policies, again, some of those sticky questions that may come 338 00:26:28,090 --> 00:26:31,330 up, declaring a state of local emergency. 339 00:26:31,510 --> 00:26:35,710 I'm going to spend a bunch of time in a little bit here on what that is and when it might 340 00:26:35,710 --> 00:26:40,650 be recommended, you may find yourselves being requested to be a public media spokesperson 341 00:26:41,570 --> 00:26:45,250 with a camera in your face, you know, on the radio, a microphone, whatever that looks 342 00:26:45,250 --> 00:26:48,570 like being the face and the voice of the municipality. 343 00:26:49,670 --> 00:26:55,370 The other piece that I add into there is the acknowledging contributions, yes, hopefully 344 00:26:55,370 --> 00:26:57,470 during the event, but especially afterwards. 345 00:26:57,890 --> 00:27:05,050 There are a number of staff that get pulled in and perform extraordinary feats well beyond 346 00:27:05,050 --> 00:27:06,630 what I think the job descriptions are. 347 00:27:07,590 --> 00:27:12,910 As well, there are a number of volunteer groups that are under the auspices of the municipality, 348 00:27:12,910 --> 00:27:19,210 You know, our emergency support services and communications and search and rescue and I think I got them all 349 00:27:21,010 --> 00:27:22,750 That that helpers want as well 350 00:27:22,750 --> 00:27:27,950 So just making sure that they're recognized afterwards and you know coming from the elected officials especially 351 00:27:29,630 --> 00:27:36,130 I'm going to take a quick break to let you pepper me with questions, which is really my chance to grab some water 352 00:27:40,580 --> 00:27:41,100 Sure 353 00:27:41,100 --> 00:27:49,140 I guess my question is in relation to before the emergency takes place, before the disaster. 354 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:56,920 And I've talked with our director planning before about forecasting. 355 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:05,700 We're required to do some forecasting regarding housing in the district by, I believe January 1st of next year. 356 00:28:05,700 --> 00:28:21,560 How do we appropriate, how could we build in forecasting and future growth that is resilient and adoptable to various scenarios and such that we might see. 357 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:32,500 Not suggesting we can tell everything about the climate but from what you know, from the Pacific Climate Institute, from others in terms of the 358 00:28:34,180 --> 00:28:40,480 frequencies, potential frequencies of disasters with, you know, yeah, I mean, I think this 359 00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:44,960 is, this is one of the challenges right now. And it gets back to that slide that I talk 360 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:50,460 about uncertainty is, you know, before we used to be able to look backwards with relative 361 00:28:50,460 --> 00:28:56,040 confidence of what happened is what will happen. And we know that that isn't as effective 362 00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:01,680 anymore. Having said that, there are lots of forecasts and climate models that are available 363 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:08,460 that can start to look at, you know, what our precipitation, our temperatures are, you know, 364 00:29:08,540 --> 00:29:14,040 all of those different climatic pieces, and what might that look like? 365 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:19,240 And, you know, I think what your question is getting at is, as a municipality, how do 366 00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:22,520 you add that to the work that you're doing? 367 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:22,900 Right. 368 00:29:23,300 --> 00:29:30,160 And I think it highlights the fact that climate change, emergency management, planning, development, 369 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:36,320 All those things, the part of a multi-sided coin or dice, if you will, that they can't 370 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:37,080 be done in isolation. 371 00:29:37,660 --> 00:29:42,160 So, you know, those conversations need to involve multiple different departments. 372 00:29:43,020 --> 00:29:50,740 And I think the work on disaster risk reduction that is upcoming for the municipality is targeting 373 00:29:50,740 --> 00:29:55,640 looking at and identifying what are the risks both now but into the future as well. 374 00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,960 So I think that then gets fed into the different processes of... 375 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:29,020 Approval processes and work that's being done. You know, I, again, I am impressed with, with the district, you know, with what you guys do with Merne's management. You have a dedicated climate planner. Specialist, I can't remember the title. You have all these pieces that are feeding in. And it's just making sure that those connections are being made from what I'm seeing. You guys are doing well with making the connections, and it's being purposeful. 376 00:30:29,020 --> 00:30:32,800 and deliberate in incorporating those into the work that happens. 377 00:30:33,300 --> 00:30:37,960 Yeah, what I would love to see given that we have to do a housing needs assessment, 378 00:30:38,820 --> 00:30:44,740 is for there to be some scenarios built in of worst case scenario to best case scenario, 379 00:30:44,740 --> 00:30:51,380 maybe an in between in terms of the potential impact of future growth. 380 00:30:51,980 --> 00:30:56,880 And how that question about climate and 381 00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,960 And such needs to be considered in light of that. 382 00:31:00,300 --> 00:31:04,980 Yeah, I mean, I think the growth in terms of the types of buildings we're building and how we're building them. 383 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:10,720 I think step code is a start to that, but probably not keeping pace with climate change. 384 00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:16,600 But then also the development itself, where are we building and what are we taking away, how are we protecting the green space? 385 00:31:17,020 --> 00:31:22,940 That we know provides shelter, if you will, literal and figurative from climate change. 386 00:31:22,940 --> 00:31:32,180 So yeah, I agree with you, and I mean, I think some of that work is upcoming through the emergency program, and hopefully we'll filter out through the different departments. 387 00:31:35,150 --> 00:31:38,670 Anything else before I move on? Definitely got my water. Oh, yeah. 388 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:54,340 Sure. Thank you. And, you know, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure on this sort of topic. 389 00:31:56,020 --> 00:32:06,000 I guess, first to staff and the work that was done with the last significant exercise that was done around the West Side, around Mount Newton. 390 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:16,240 Climate and emergencies and these types of events don't hold on to boundaries for local governments by any stretch of the imagination. 391 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:45,220 So I guess how much of this coordination is also done not just the you know the resources at the districts level but the resources from the you know the policy groups locally so that we are you know pulling in the same direction so to speak that we're having consistent decision making processes to move forward on this there's you know I had a really interesting conversation with. 392 00:32:45,220 --> 00:32:54,940 with CAO, West Bank recently and the decisions that were required of him through the policy 393 00:32:54,940 --> 00:32:59,600 group and how do you, you know, how do you train or what sort of education is provided 394 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:11,040 for, I guess, the elected officials to, you know, how do you value side A of the street 395 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:15,020 versus side B of the street when you're having to make some of these challenging decisions. 396 00:33:15,980 --> 00:33:20,080 Yeah, a couple, I mean, do you want to talk about RIMP and the- 397 00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:21,800 It's a lot there, I can appreciate. 398 00:33:22,100 --> 00:33:23,380 Yeah, no, a few pieces. 399 00:33:23,740 --> 00:33:28,180 So, I mean, in terms of regional coordination, there are a few mechanisms in place. 400 00:33:28,540 --> 00:33:32,940 So there's the regional emergency management partnership, which is the 13 municipalities 401 00:33:32,940 --> 00:33:38,980 and the CRD coming together, co-funded, raised, organized by the CRD in the province 402 00:33:38,980 --> 00:33:43,980 on behalf of you all of the 13, to do regional emergency planning. 403 00:33:43,980 --> 00:33:50,420 One of their projects is the regional concept of operations, I believe they call it, which 404 00:33:50,420 --> 00:33:56,500 brings together the CAOs in time of crisis to help make some of those larger decisions. 405 00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:03,180 So there is that piece of it, and I guess that answers one line of your questioning. 406 00:34:04,620 --> 00:34:09,480 I mean, the other piece in terms of how do you prepare elected officials in the policy 407 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:09,900 group? 408 00:34:09,900 --> 00:34:16,920 You know, to me, my hope is that this is the first of many for you all and that you find 409 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:23,380 value in engaging in this conversation and want more training because there are, you know, 410 00:34:23,460 --> 00:34:27,760 as you say, West Bank, you know, how do you prioritize if we knock down these 10 houses 411 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,280 we may protect the rest of West Clonar, whatever the numbers are. 412 00:34:31,580 --> 00:34:36,960 They're not generally easy questions that come and how do you prepare yourself for that? 413 00:34:39,140 --> 00:34:41,660 If I could just add to that through the mirror. 414 00:34:42,500 --> 00:34:47,160 I think that this is preparation just being at a council meeting. 415 00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:52,240 You're preparing every day because you have to make decisions with information that's 416 00:34:52,240 --> 00:34:53,160 provided to you. 417 00:34:53,380 --> 00:34:55,760 That's what would happen during an emergency as well. 418 00:34:56,060 --> 00:35:00,500 We would provide you with the best information we could and then decisions would have to 419 00:35:00,500 --> 00:35:00,840 be made. 420 00:35:01,300 --> 00:35:05,400 It's difficult when you're in an emergency situation because you have to make decisions 421 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:10,820 that it's almost impossible for us to be able to prepare you for every decision, but 422 00:35:10,820 --> 00:35:15,380 it would be about staff providing you with the information and then you being provided 423 00:35:15,380 --> 00:35:16,140 with that decision. 424 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:22,860 I mean, yeah, I don't think we'll ever be able to train you, you know, for anything that's 425 00:35:22,860 --> 00:35:27,600 going to come up, but so it's just going to be, but you make difficult decisions every day 426 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:28,980 I guess is what I'm saying Councillor. 427 00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:37,360 Along that line's following up, the integration and coordination with the, you know, 428 00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:42,540 the five local First Nations around here as well and how they're included and incorporated 429 00:35:42,540 --> 00:35:48,040 into some of this because they would probably fall potentially outside of that CRD emergency 430 00:35:48,740 --> 00:35:49,900 coordination, I would assume. 431 00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:54,200 I'm just going to jump in, sorry, for Chad here and say that under the new act, which I think 432 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:57,660 you're going to speak to in a minute, there is a requirement to work with the local First 433 00:35:57,660 --> 00:36:03,340 nations and we did receive a grant of $48,000 to work with our two local First Nations 434 00:36:03,340 --> 00:36:09,980 on emergency planning and so that grant is basically for the next calendar year to meet 435 00:36:09,980 --> 00:36:13,640 the requirements of the act. I will say that the district was already doing that and 436 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:18,740 incorporates an emergency coordination and planning function into the fire services agreement 437 00:36:18,740 --> 00:36:21,920 with the First Nations, the one that's currently under negotiation. 438 00:36:24,130 --> 00:36:24,650 Exactly. 439 00:36:24,950 --> 00:36:25,890 I was going to say perfect. 440 00:36:26,130 --> 00:36:26,470 Good job. 441 00:36:26,610 --> 00:36:27,350 I didn't have to do it. 442 00:36:28,250 --> 00:36:32,770 But yeah, I mean, you guys already have some pretty great relationships with the First 443 00:36:32,770 --> 00:36:33,090 Nations. 444 00:36:33,390 --> 00:36:35,850 At least from the emergency management side is from what I see. 445 00:36:37,070 --> 00:36:43,810 And I think that will lend itself well to those conversations moving forward and these new 446 00:36:43,810 --> 00:36:49,750 requirements that have now come into effect for local authorities through the new act. 447 00:36:51,030 --> 00:36:55,150 which is a great segue into the legislation. 448 00:36:56,350 --> 00:36:58,610 So I'm just going to plow through this a little bit. 449 00:36:59,470 --> 00:37:02,410 So really there is the Emergency and Disaster Management Act 450 00:37:03,430 --> 00:37:05,330 affectionately known as Edma now. 451 00:37:05,830 --> 00:37:08,350 There will be new regulations coming. 452 00:37:08,630 --> 00:37:10,150 They are not in place yet. 453 00:37:10,590 --> 00:37:13,390 They're still being developed and anticipated. 454 00:37:14,030 --> 00:37:15,390 I'm just going to say this year. 455 00:37:16,970 --> 00:37:17,410 Yeah, 456 00:37:19,650 --> 00:37:23,910 we'll leave it there. There's also the other associated legislation just because 457 00:37:23,910 --> 00:37:27,950 it's emergency doesn't mean everything else just gets thrown out. I've seen, you know, 458 00:37:28,030 --> 00:37:32,210 the Fire Services Act, please act, you know, all these different acts get pulled into emergencies 459 00:37:32,210 --> 00:37:35,970 in one way or another. That doesn't mean, you know, just because there's an emergency doesn't 460 00:37:35,970 --> 00:37:39,370 mean that we get to ignore everything else. So, you know, those are all the kind of provincial 461 00:37:39,370 --> 00:37:45,490 pieces of legislation. And, of course, all your bylaws still exist as well. So, we can 462 00:37:45,490 --> 00:37:53,990 lean on multiple different legislative mechanisms and often there are emergencies that fall between 463 00:37:53,990 --> 00:37:58,310 the cracks of legislation that maybe legislation hasn't caught up to yet. 464 00:37:58,710 --> 00:38:04,130 The new Water Sustainability Act was a great improvement over the Old Water Act, where there 465 00:38:04,130 --> 00:38:11,390 was a lot of emergencies that kind of fell through the cracks, so that's kind of the brief overview. 466 00:38:11,390 --> 00:38:17,130 you. In terms of the act itself, you know, I pulled out a few pieces just around some 467 00:38:17,130 --> 00:38:22,410 of the municipal requirements. You are required now. You kind of always were, but it was 468 00:38:22,410 --> 00:38:27,210 more hidden. But you're required to complete and maintain a risk assessment. That is 469 00:38:27,210 --> 00:38:32,730 work that is upcoming. Emergency plan or plans and the business continuity plans make sure 470 00:38:32,730 --> 00:38:38,210 that you can continue doing the great work that you guys do. In terms of the risk assessment, 471 00:38:38,210 --> 00:38:43,130 The words that they use as you must identify are reasonably foreseeable hazards. 472 00:38:44,870 --> 00:38:53,490 We're not entirely sure how they're defining that yet, but you've got to look at the likelihood, the scope, the scale, basically what could go wrong here. 473 00:38:54,230 --> 00:39:03,350 You have to look at some of the potential consequences to not just people but the property, to livestock, to animals, to places of heritage value. 474 00:39:03,350 --> 00:39:08,170 consider who are the vulnerable populations and people in your community and how 475 00:39:08,170 --> 00:39:13,650 might they be impacted. The emergency plans have to look at what are the 476 00:39:13,650 --> 00:39:18,350 necessary measures needed, whose got responsibilities in that plan, they want 477 00:39:18,350 --> 00:39:23,370 people either personally named or by position. I suspect that it'll almost always be 478 00:39:23,370 --> 00:39:29,450 by position for all the reasons. Start looking at what are the resources required 479 00:39:29,450 --> 00:39:41,210 As part of our emergency plan, the procedures, it does ask you to put together a training and exercise program so that you have that ongoing reminders and building that muscle memory. 480 00:39:41,670 --> 00:39:47,770 It asks you to come up with and identify what are the mitigated actions and promote cultural safety. 481 00:39:47,910 --> 00:39:53,510 And this is the first piece of that requirement to engage with First Nations. 482 00:39:55,230 --> 00:40:00,710 If you evacuate people, you have to be able to provide care for them and their animals, 483 00:40:00,710 --> 00:40:06,130 whether that is domesticated or livestock, which is new, the livestock side of it. 484 00:40:06,950 --> 00:40:13,030 And you must consult with and engage with indigenous governing bodies for each nation that 485 00:40:13,030 --> 00:40:16,110 has traditional territory in your area. 486 00:40:16,870 --> 00:40:21,510 So that may extend beyond the two reserves that you normally deal with. 487 00:40:21,510 --> 00:40:25,950 I just wanted, if I could add to that, Chad? 488 00:40:26,130 --> 00:40:26,310 Yeah. 489 00:40:26,510 --> 00:40:32,130 Just for council's information, this is the first legislation that has incorporated 490 00:40:32,130 --> 00:40:38,710 dripper into it, so I think it's something that we can look as a foreshadowing to any 491 00:40:38,710 --> 00:40:43,230 new legislation and what responsibilities the municipality will have under dripper. 492 00:40:44,330 --> 00:40:48,790 Yeah, absolutely, and it was legislation that was co-developed with First Nations as well. 493 00:40:49,570 --> 00:40:51,350 So yeah, that's a great point. 494 00:40:51,350 --> 00:40:55,830 The business continuity plan really, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, it's 495 00:40:55,830 --> 00:40:58,470 really the measures to ensure the continuity of your services. 496 00:40:59,910 --> 00:41:06,470 Again, I pull out this requirement to consult, coordinate, and cooperate with First Nations. 497 00:41:07,030 --> 00:41:12,390 And this is through all phases for your risk assessment, for your planning, during your response, 498 00:41:12,390 --> 00:41:19,290 during your recovery at all points, walking in lockstep with the nations that are around. 499 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:25,520 The other thing that it does is it creates the opportunity to create what they're calling 500 00:41:26,340 --> 00:41:28,260 multigerstictional emergency management organizations. 501 00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:31,820 Let me create with acronyms, M-J-E-M-O, it just rolls off the tongue. 502 00:41:32,740 --> 00:41:38,280 And this is for either all of your legislative responsibilities under Edma or you can specify 503 00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:39,140 which ones. 504 00:41:39,420 --> 00:41:44,480 And so you can partner with, you know, in your guys' case, one or more of the local authorities 505 00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:49,060 on the peninsula or one or more of the First Nations and you can create a single kind of 506 00:41:49,060 --> 00:41:54,540 emergency management organization, so that is a new opportunity within the new legislation. 507 00:41:56,880 --> 00:42:03,720 I think this is one of my last ones on the legislation and really it creates, just as the last act did, 508 00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:09,160 the ability for extra ordinary powers and will get into the state of local emergency. 509 00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:17,300 I just note there there is also the provincial state of emergency that basically provides access to superpowers if you will and 510 00:42:17,300 --> 00:42:18,900 will get into what those powers are. 511 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:24,060 In short, it speaks directly to all of those phases 512 00:42:24,060 --> 00:42:25,900 of emergency management, right from preparedness 513 00:42:25,900 --> 00:42:28,360 and understanding through to recovery, 514 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:29,340 clarifies roles. 515 00:42:29,940 --> 00:42:33,220 We need to work with the First Nations around us, 516 00:42:33,460 --> 00:42:35,640 provides for different kinds of shared programs 517 00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:37,040 and agreements that I just mentioned. 518 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,080 It does also add specific requirements 519 00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:42,600 for the first time for critical infrastructure owners. 520 00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:45,040 So, you know, this is transportation, 521 00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:53,100 power, natural gas, or fossil gas, transportation, et cetera. 522 00:42:53,240 --> 00:42:57,020 All of those operators now have requirements under Edmuth, 523 00:42:57,020 --> 00:43:01,720 a new emergency management act to perform many of the same tasks 524 00:43:01,720 --> 00:43:03,500 that you are being asked to perform. 525 00:43:04,900 --> 00:43:07,720 It does also add in enforcement and compliance sections. 526 00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:10,200 Some people are getting really edgy about this one. 527 00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,820 It's really just in line with pretty much every other piece of legislation. 528 00:43:13,820 --> 00:43:18,820 It just was, didn't really have any teeth in the old one, so I wouldn't get too worried about this. 529 00:43:19,140 --> 00:43:23,120 I don't think the province wants to come in and do any of that, if they don't have to. 530 00:43:24,620 --> 00:43:30,340 Who, state of local emergency? What is it? Again, it is that ability to access additional powers. 531 00:43:30,820 --> 00:43:36,700 That is the only time that you ever need to declare state of local emergency is to access one or more of those powers. 532 00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:41,940 It has nothing to do with finances or anything else that you can think of. 533 00:43:41,940 --> 00:43:47,280 There are, there is a lot of confusion often around the state of local emergency in part 534 00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:51,960 because in the U.S., states of emergency are tied to funding for us. 535 00:43:52,340 --> 00:43:56,840 We have access to exactly the same amount of money in the same ways with or without a state 536 00:43:56,840 --> 00:43:57,580 of local emergency. 537 00:43:58,140 --> 00:44:02,800 I'll say it one more time, the only reason to ever declare state of emergency is to access 538 00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:03,720 one or more of those powers. 539 00:44:04,140 --> 00:44:05,040 So what are those powers? 540 00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:08,940 I'm going to tease you and do one more slide before I get into that. 541 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,700 The two mechanisms that you can declare stable local emergency are by order. 542 00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:18,500 The mayor's designate can do it by order or by by law. 543 00:44:19,700 --> 00:44:23,960 I've never seen it done by by law unless it's been, you know, an emergency that's been going 544 00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:28,180 on for a long time for obvious reasons of timeliness. 545 00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:33,880 So it's usually done by order, but declaration, there are certain things that need to be included 546 00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:37,620 in it, you know, the nature is that a flood is that a fire, the geography, all those kind 547 00:44:37,620 --> 00:44:41,460 of things needs a date and an expiry date. 548 00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:46,420 In the new legislation, you can now declare state of local emergency for 14 days. 549 00:44:46,740 --> 00:44:47,680 It used to be seven. 550 00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:54,460 So every 14 days, you either have to renew that state of local emergency, rescind it, or it 551 00:44:54,460 --> 00:44:55,520 will automatically expire. 552 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:59,240 So anytime you're being asked to sign a state local emergency 553 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:05,380 Set yourself a nice little calendar reminder for 13 days from then to make sure that that doesn't expire. 554 00:45:08,540 --> 00:45:31,840 Yeah. The American declare it. Yeah. Many lots for 14 days. Yeah. Does the mayor renew it? There is. So two things. The American can declare kind of unilaterally. There is a requirement to notify and keep the rest of council apprised in timely manner. I can't remember the words that they use, but they can't just 555 00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:33,940 Let's go do it and then not tell the rest of council. 556 00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:45,740 The renewal of legislation actually says something of, they must, at the earliest convenience, convene council in order to, there's the words that's exactly it. 557 00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:46,580 Yeah, good work. 558 00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:52,960 And they can also, they can also renew unilaterally as well. 559 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,760 So, I mean, the preference is that all of counsel is included. 560 00:45:57,200 --> 00:46:04,300 The preference is that it's done by by law, but the reality is that it's often done by order. 561 00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:09,160 And often, even if it's just the mayor that's signing, mayor, or 562 00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:14,560 designate, that it is done with the knowledge and consent of the rest of counsel, 563 00:46:14,780 --> 00:46:15,980 even if it's not official. 564 00:46:18,790 --> 00:46:22,230 I'm going to go through a few of the powers of the state of local emergency. 565 00:46:22,230 --> 00:46:26,610 It used to be like nine bullet points in the old act. 566 00:46:26,610 --> 00:46:31,790 It's now I think three or four pages, so it's more clear, we'll go with that. 567 00:46:32,950 --> 00:46:36,410 So you can identify supplies, equipment, services and properties as essential. 568 00:46:36,930 --> 00:46:41,890 The reason you might want to do that is because you can then control the prices or rents of 569 00:46:41,890 --> 00:46:42,670 those items. 570 00:46:43,350 --> 00:46:50,630 If we, it's really, the best example is cost-scouging, an emergency happens and all of a sudden it's 571 00:46:50,630 --> 00:46:53,010 The heat event and the price of ice goes through the roof. 572 00:46:53,550 --> 00:46:56,410 You could set the price of ice, for example. 573 00:46:58,150 --> 00:47:04,970 The rationing providing for distribution, that example of the roads washing out and the 574 00:47:04,970 --> 00:47:11,210 gas supply chains, and there's a while there where we can only fill up so many leaders in 575 00:47:11,210 --> 00:47:12,390 each filling, things like that. 576 00:47:12,770 --> 00:47:16,990 That was put in place through a provincial state of emergency, and they were able to ration. 577 00:47:16,990 --> 00:47:19,910 And that's the mechanism that said, you know, gas station, 578 00:47:20,030 --> 00:47:22,150 you can only sell so much per customer. 579 00:47:22,790 --> 00:47:24,010 So that's one mechanism. 580 00:47:24,390 --> 00:47:26,110 You can also provide for the restoration 581 00:47:26,110 --> 00:47:27,030 of essential services. 582 00:47:27,710 --> 00:47:31,510 You can also authorize or acquire a person to provide services 583 00:47:31,510 --> 00:47:33,090 and to which they are trained for. 584 00:47:33,710 --> 00:47:37,110 This is despite any contract or collective agreement 585 00:47:37,110 --> 00:47:38,610 that is already in place. 586 00:47:39,050 --> 00:47:40,550 That is new language and the new act. 587 00:47:41,790 --> 00:47:43,710 So, you know, you... 588 00:47:45,310 --> 00:47:48,690 I'm not going to try and put an example to that one. 589 00:47:49,650 --> 00:47:53,250 The authorize I understand the require I have a harder time with. 590 00:47:53,390 --> 00:47:58,110 I'm not going to go behind somebody and make their arms move, but you have that ability. 591 00:47:58,530 --> 00:48:03,250 In terms of land and property, you can appropriate use, control any property or land. 592 00:48:03,970 --> 00:48:09,990 You can enter it without warrant, you can prohibit entry, you can alter it, you can build things, you can demolish things. 593 00:48:10,410 --> 00:48:12,790 You can essentially almost do whatever you want. 594 00:48:12,790 --> 00:48:23,990 And as it relates to the emergency, this isn't the, like, we have a problem, you know, property that we've been trying to deal with for years, and now we've got emergency grade, you have to be able to justify that it's related to the emergency. 595 00:48:24,750 --> 00:48:31,790 So all of these powers, as you're probably starting to see, suspend civil liberties or other legislation in some way. 596 00:48:32,130 --> 00:48:37,790 That's why they are very powerful, and that's why they want every 14 days to renew it. 597 00:48:37,790 --> 00:48:38,570 We still need these powers. 598 00:48:38,850 --> 00:48:44,330 If so, great, we can renew it, but it's forcing you to ask the question of what you still 599 00:48:44,330 --> 00:48:45,850 need that state of local emergency for. 600 00:48:47,130 --> 00:48:52,190 In terms of evacuations, you can require somebody to leave, whether it's individuals or animals, 601 00:48:52,590 --> 00:48:57,570 you can remove people and personal property, but you have to provide for the care of those 602 00:48:57,570 --> 00:48:58,550 people and animals. 603 00:49:00,050 --> 00:49:05,750 Related to that, controlling a prohibit travel, carrying on a business type of business, event 604 00:49:05,750 --> 00:49:10,630 or type of business and limits, so even if somebody is licensed permitted or otherwise authorized 605 00:49:10,630 --> 00:49:15,930 to do something, you can basically pull that back and say no, there's a wildfire in the area, 606 00:49:16,130 --> 00:49:20,190 there's a flood, there's a whatever's going on, you are no longer allowed to do that despite 607 00:49:20,190 --> 00:49:22,530 what has been told to you in the past. 608 00:49:24,810 --> 00:49:29,050 So all very powerful pieces of those extraordinary 609 00:49:29,050 --> 00:49:33,370 special powers under state of local emergency, so that's why it's not entered into lightly, 610 00:49:33,370 --> 00:49:38,470 And, you know, we need to go back everyone's in a while and make sure that we still need those powers. 611 00:49:40,190 --> 00:49:46,270 I'm going to plow through in to try and make sure that I get to the end and still leave some time. 612 00:49:47,210 --> 00:49:53,550 One of the last things that I want to say is really it's my plug, my time to go in my soapbox. 613 00:49:53,690 --> 00:49:54,330 Are you ready? 614 00:49:54,790 --> 00:49:57,570 Being personally prepared to make sure that your families are ready. 615 00:49:58,010 --> 00:50:02,690 Because if you're asked to respond in emergency and your head's still at home trying to figure out 616 00:50:02,690 --> 00:50:08,030 if your loved ones are cared for and safe, you're not going to be very effective in an emergency. 617 00:50:08,430 --> 00:50:13,650 So having a kit together, having a plan together with your loved ones to be able to care. 618 00:50:14,370 --> 00:50:20,470 The current recommendation in the CRD is seven days. The province and the feds are still 619 00:50:20,470 --> 00:50:28,370 48 out, no 72 hours. I would extend that to two weeks or more personally, and really if you start 620 00:50:28,370 --> 00:50:33,650 are looking at the news footage of a major emergency after seven days, after 14 days. 621 00:50:33,790 --> 00:50:35,470 Does it really look that different? 622 00:50:36,250 --> 00:50:41,330 You know, if you can roll the dice, but it doesn't take that much to put on emergency 623 00:50:41,330 --> 00:50:44,350 kit together, so I do encourage you to do that. 624 00:50:46,720 --> 00:50:47,140 There you go. 625 00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:49,660 I'm going to stop there in terms of questions. 626 00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:55,560 I'd love to do a little bit of an exercise where I just poke you with some policy 627 00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:57,980 questions if you'll entertain me to do that. 628 00:50:57,980 --> 00:51:02,840 But before I do, I just wanted to give you guys all a chance to pepper me with questions. 629 00:51:03,820 --> 00:51:06,480 I was going to say that Chad had prepared a workshop for Council. 630 00:51:06,720 --> 00:51:08,860 So if Council so wishes, we could bring him back to do that. 631 00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:11,080 We do have a seven o'clock start for a regular Council meeting. 632 00:51:11,340 --> 00:51:13,520 But I think he's open to questions now. 633 00:51:17,430 --> 00:51:23,430 Rea Kitt, who could help us ensure that we have the appropriate kit? 634 00:51:24,590 --> 00:51:25,290 Do you want to talk to that? 635 00:51:28,070 --> 00:51:28,810 We can't. 636 00:51:33,170 --> 00:51:35,090 Absolutely, I do work if you want to. 637 00:51:35,370 --> 00:51:37,930 We might think we do, but we may not have. 638 00:51:39,070 --> 00:51:42,010 And we're some nearest cooling center 639 00:51:42,530 --> 00:51:44,950 in the community for people in a middle of a heat wave. 640 00:51:45,990 --> 00:51:49,070 So currently right now we have the Cultural Center in Brentwood, 641 00:51:49,450 --> 00:51:51,290 as a designated cooling center. 642 00:51:51,990 --> 00:51:54,110 And in central, or in Sandwichton, 643 00:51:54,430 --> 00:51:57,770 we have Sandwich Baptist Church across from Centennial Park, 644 00:51:58,290 --> 00:51:59,190 and the Masonic Hall. 645 00:51:59,190 --> 00:52:01,190 Great. Thank you. 646 00:52:01,950 --> 00:52:08,570 Do we also need to plan for displaced people from elsewhere when the fires were occurring? 647 00:52:08,770 --> 00:52:12,710 And so is would that be considered a crisis here if people are needing to relocate? 648 00:52:14,030 --> 00:52:20,630 And, you know what I mean, where are we going to provide lodging and housing if people are displaced? 649 00:52:21,970 --> 00:52:27,990 So through our ESS team, emergency support services, on the peninsula we do have designated 650 00:52:27,990 --> 00:52:31,610 reception centers and group lodging areas with all the equipment. 651 00:52:32,290 --> 00:52:35,650 So they are designated and how that would work as we would send somebody out. 652 00:52:36,230 --> 00:52:40,810 We don't broadcast where those are because we don't want the public to just go there in case 653 00:52:40,810 --> 00:52:45,350 that building is not standing and then all of a sudden we have 20, 30, 40 people waiting 654 00:52:45,350 --> 00:52:48,330 to get in there and try and sleep or whatever. 655 00:52:48,330 --> 00:52:54,590 So what we'll do through the EOC is we'll set a team out and they'll kind of go and do a rapid damage assessment. 656 00:52:54,910 --> 00:53:02,350 Make sure that that building is still standing and safe and then we would broadcast that throughout the municipality on where to go. 657 00:53:03,730 --> 00:53:11,430 The last piece that I'll add to that is just the emergency support services is another one of those provincially kind of coordinated programs. 658 00:53:11,430 --> 00:53:19,670 So, the sending, you know, and the receiving municipality would both have teams that can work together very well. 659 00:53:19,890 --> 00:53:26,450 And so, it is a system that, you know, when we see those big wildfires, you know, we have had people show up on the island, you know, 660 00:53:26,450 --> 00:53:31,030 either announced or unannounced that we knew or didn't know that they're coming and say, I need help. 661 00:53:31,750 --> 00:53:36,150 And that is something that's pretty well, well-oiled machine, I'd say. 662 00:53:36,150 --> 00:53:36,190 Okay. 663 00:53:36,810 --> 00:53:43,710 Yeah, it is, and we have agreements in place with motels, hotels all over the region to 664 00:53:43,710 --> 00:53:44,410 be able to do that. 665 00:53:49,300 --> 00:53:49,780 Thank you. 666 00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:56,440 Just regarding the local state of emergency, has there been an example where one was issued 667 00:53:56,440 --> 00:54:02,980 and the province deemed that it was not necessary or was not required and sort of stepped into 668 00:54:03,700 --> 00:54:05,120 the SERP control again? 669 00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:08,700 I can't think of an example. 670 00:54:08,700 --> 00:54:15,120 They have the ability, too, under the legislation, but I can't think of an example where that's happened. 671 00:54:16,700 --> 00:54:18,720 I'd say if anything, it's the opposite. 672 00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:25,040 There are times where there have been times that I've known municipalities to maybe not be moving as fast as the province wants. 673 00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:37,600 And to, you know, have conversations and suggest that maybe a state of local emergency would be in order and here's why, but it generally starts with that soft touch of reaching out and having that conversation. 674 00:54:38,700 --> 00:54:40,800 to say, hey, what do you know that we don't know kind of thing? 675 00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:43,240 But they do have that ability. 676 00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:46,820 Any other questions? 677 00:54:52,710 --> 00:54:53,990 I will probably leave it there. 678 00:54:54,450 --> 00:54:56,210 I do have, like, say a workshop. 679 00:54:56,590 --> 00:54:57,930 I can come back at any point. 680 00:54:58,290 --> 00:55:00,950 And we can, I can have more fun that way. 681 00:55:02,750 --> 00:55:03,970 Thank you, everyone, for your time. 682 00:55:04,590 --> 00:55:05,090 Thank you, Chad. 683 00:55:05,330 --> 00:55:06,310 Thank you for the presentation. 684 00:55:08,190 --> 00:55:08,510 OK. 685 00:55:09,870 --> 00:55:10,230 Well, 686 00:55:12,950 --> 00:55:13,130 yeah. 687 00:55:13,750 --> 00:55:15,330 Are we scheduled to start at seven? 688 00:55:16,730 --> 00:55:18,230 So we'll be back in five minutes.