Regional directors united in distrust of EDMA framework
PRRD board wants public buy-in and clarity from government
As far as the Peace River Regional District Board of Directors is concerned, there were some things that could be improved in the 1996 Emergency Act, but nothing to warrant a whole new piece of legislation. For three years, Board Chair Brad Sperling sat on the emergency advisory committee, and says none of the recommendations the committee put forward have been addressed in the Emergency and Disaster Management Act.
Following the submission of the report from Community Services, regarding the impacts of the EDMA on the Regional District, directors were up in arms over the so-called modernizations and improvements the province made to the Emergency Act. The EDMA is now in effect in British Columbia, without any regulations to guide its use. The process of developing these regulations is expected to take up to two years, and directors are concerned that because of this lack, they can’t know for sure what the impacts will be.
The only thing that does seem certain, is that local government will have very little authority in future emergencies, and the provincial government isn’t accepting input from the public.
Area E director Dan Rose felt that there needs to be input from the public, local governments, and other stakeholders, instead of creating legislation and insisting that regional districts completely rewrite their emergency plans to accommodate it.
“If it has to be done the Province’s way, and only their way, and they’re not going to take any input in, maybe they should own it,” Rose said.
Leonard Hiebert, Area D director shares Rose’s concerns. “They haven’t done any public outreach, and so it will fall back on us again,” Hiebert said.
“It’s their legislation, their regulations, they should be the ones sitting here answering questions from constituents.”
The Board’s biggest concerns were not how the EDMA will affect them as local government, but the impact the sweeping changes will have on residents of the regional district.
In order to accommodate the province’s edicts, the regional district will have to increase property taxes to pay for the additional staff and hours required to implement and enforce the still-unclear regulations, as well as creating multiple new emergency plans for each electoral area. The potential for exorbitant fines and imprisonment for anyone who defies evacuation orders, to stay on their land and care for livestock for example, was another major point of concern.
“This is not what my constituents want, and it is not going to go well if you try to force people off their properties,” said Area B director Jordan Kealy.
“I don’t think there was anything wrong with our previous system, other than the main thing we really needed, which was communication. And I don’t think it was that hard to get,” Kealy added. “Instead, we’re getting over-taxation, having to pay for more employees, more workload on local government, more responsibility on local government that we shouldn’t have.”
At the same time as there’s more responsibility downloaded to local government, the province is taking away previously held authority to deal with emergency situations. Under the previous act, municipalities and regional districts were the authorities during State of Local Emergency and had eight broad special powers. The EDMA shifts that to the hands of the provincial government, by replacing the SOLE powers with 32 specific powers, some of which are only available to the province.
Some directors expressed concern about even receiving reports regarding the EDMA, because it seems like every new report pushes the regional district closer and closer to compliance that the board is not comfortable with.
“We all have the same questions, we all have the same concerns, yet we have to keep receiving this for information because it’s being shoved on us constantly,” said Pouce Coupe Director Danielle Veach. “There’s almost a point where I’m not comfortable even receiving a report anymore, because at this point in time, there’s too many questions, too many concerns that shouldn’t be downloaded onto us.”
However, Hudson’s Hope Director Travous Quibell believes the more information the board has, the better, even if it does make them more uncomfortable with what the province is asking.
“We need to draw a line somewhere and indicate that compliance with this Act is not something we’re willing to entertain,” Quibell said.
That line was drawn when the Committee of the Whole moved on to the next report which recommended approving two additional FTE positions – an Emergency Program Officer, and an Emergency Program Coordinator.
Regional District CAO Shawn Dahlen said that these positions would likely be embedded in the organization, as staffing in this area is light and already very busy with day-to-day activities.
Directors were concerned that although having the additional staff in times of emergency would be helpful, these positions would help to enforce an Act that the board doesn’t support.
Kealy wanted to defer the decision until after the residents who have foot the bill for these positions have been consulted, adding that as they don’t know what the positions entail, the board needs more information to make an educated decision.
“I’m not in favour of hiring anybody,” said Rose. “I’d like to see the province come out with some engagement and create a buy-in [for the public].”
“We need to learn what the repercussions are. The push-back from most rural parts of the province will either lead to a bigger stick or backing off,” Rose added.
Fort St. John Director Lilia Hansen agreed, saying that the government has them over a barrel when it comes to “the safety of our residents, who is doing the work in the EOCs to be there for when our residents need us?”
“Can we make this temporary, so we have help in our EOCs, because there will be more emergencies,” Hansen said.
Directors voted to defer the decision until the February 8 board meeting.
Dahlen concluded the discussion by informing the directors that staff will not work on this matter any further until they get clear direction from the board.
“Staff has put in a lot of work since November 8 to lay the framework to adhere to the legislative requirements of the province. We’re no longer going to do that until we receive the board’s direction to do so.”