EADC looking for Act clarification from shadow minister
Although Bill 31, British Columbia’s new Emergency and Disaster Management Act came into force on November 8, the actual regulations are anticipated to take another two years to finalize. This leaves municipalities and regional districts in the province with very little guidance on how to proceed in the event of an emergency.
Cariboo-Chilcoltin MLA Lorne Doerkson, Shadow Minister for Emergency Management and Climate Readiness is spearheading opposition to the new Act, and Area E Director Dan Rose had the opportunity to meet with Doerksen last week to discuss issues surrounding the Act. Rose thinks “it would be valuable to see what the MLA thinks the problems are, and some potential solutions,” ahead of the full Peace River Regional District board’s planned discussion of the Act in December.
Rose asked his fellow Electoral Area Directors Committee members what their concerns are surrounding the new Act, at their regular meeting on November 23.
Area C director Brad Sperling said he would be interested to hear Doerksen’s “take on it, and what points he sees are going to be very hard for regional districts to download. The government has said it’s going to take at least two years for the regulations. What are we going to do in the meantime?”
Shawn Dahlen, the Regional District’s Chief Administrative Officer said he had a lengthy conversation with Doerksen at the Union of BC Municipalities, about “the challenges that they had experienced with wildfire in the Cariboo. They were also very concerned at that time with what the new emergency and disaster management act was going to look like, and so it’s great that there’s going to be a conversation with some of your colleagues, and people elsewhere in the province, about their concerns and challenges with what is in front of us right now.”
Residents are concerned about the “unlimited ability to just come onto people’s property as they see fit. There has been an emergency declared, but I guess they want clarification as to what actually classifies as an emergency. Does it have to be provincially, locally – and that clarification is what I’ve been constantly been getting asked,” said EADC Chair, Director Leonard Hiebert.
Sperling believes there must be a provincial state of emergency for the government to be able to enter someone’s property at will.
“But it is causing a lot of confusion for people – some of those things have actually been in legislation for years, but now they’re putting it in the emergency legislation also.”
According to Dahlen, many of these items of concern have been embedded in the legislation since it was last updated in 1996, but people are only now realizing that it’s there.
“The changes that are forthcoming are not necessarily far off what was already there. There are new changes that the PRRD definitely needs to get up to speed on and be able to resource and implement properly within the regional district,” said Dahlen.
Sean Cairns PRRD Protective Services Manager, explained that the existing powers are similar to the powers in the new act. For example, the government already had the power to cause evacuations and to enter property, during a state of local or provincial emergency.
“When we declare a state of local emergency, the province is made aware of it, and the minister does have the right to kibosh it. As well as at the end of the state of local emergency the minister has the power to extend it.”
“So, there is that level of checks and balances in there. There are also provisions in both the old and new act for compensation for damages or losses caused to property owners throughout the exercise,” Cairns said. “If we were to come on your property, if BC Wildfire were to mow down your fence to create a guard, then there’s opportunity to recoup the cost of that fence.” Those are both the new and previous acts.
What would be the future of this new Act under a BC United government, Rose asked. “We’re going to be in an election within a year’s time. If they’re going to rip this apart, I don’t know how much time we’re going to want to invest in trying to get current with what may be in front of us.”
These other contacts that he’s heard from that might have some similar points of contention, we might be able to build a coalition, suggested Rose.
Another area of concern for Rose is the liability issue surrounding the origin of an emergency issue like wildfire. “If something originates on Crown land, and gets into private property, there doesn’t seem to be any way to recoup the damages on that kind of a deal.” Whereas property owners can recoup damages if a fire, for example, originates on private property.
“I didn’t see anything in the new act that really dealt with that.”
Rose anticipated that it would be a short meeting, but he hoped that there would be some good information to bring back to the regular board meeting in December.