RDFFG asking for more information and collaboration on Emergency and Disaster Management Act changes

The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George is calling for more information and collaboration with regional districts as changes are coming to the Emergency and Disaster Management Act.

RDFFG Board Chair Lara Beckett said part of the concern is it’s not certain exactly how Regional Districts will be affected.

“From what we can tell, the way the act is written, there’s going to be more responsibilities put on Regional Districts, but we haven’t had the detailed level of implementation through regulation and what that is going to look like,” Beckett said.

Beckett said under the former act, it’s up to Regional Districts to open an emergency operations centre, and decide at what point it’s necessary to declare a state of emergency.

“The primary responsibility to this point for regional districts is safety of people, and making sure that people are out of harms way,” she said.

“Under the new act, what we can anticipate is that we’re going to be required to do significantly more planning ahead, looking at risk assessments, one of the big pieces will be making sure we have a set documented structure around consultation with neighbouring communities, including First Nations.”

Beckett added there are already formal or informal working relationships between local governments, but they will need to be much more structured.

Beckett said while they don’t know what the detail is going to look like, there is going to be more emphasis on local governments in the recovery phase.

“We’re just finishing up sort of a stage where government has asked for local government’s comments on developing the regulations,” she explained.

“There were some guided questions and our staff has gone through all of those and provided a submission to the province, we understand the province will be sorting through all those comments from local governments and regional districts, and coming out with a sort of What We Heard report.”

She said the main ask is for the province to set up a Regional District specific working group that would allow regional districts to be involved in the drafting of the regulations.

“That way, then we can make sure the role and expectations around what the government is looking at really takes into account regional district structure and budgets and actual ability to meet what might be expected of us,” she said.

She added there is also no timeline for how long the regulation drafting will take place.