Local governments in B.C. must make plans to reduce the risks of all disasters starting in 2027
Municipalities and regional districts say they will need financial help to implement the new risk assessment, emergency planning and mitigation requirements
Last updated 13 hours ago
Municipal officials across B.C. are waiting to see how much financial support, if any, they will get from the new Conservative government to fulfil requirements that they produce more comprehensive emergency management plans for natural and other disasters.
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The list of disasters is long.
It includes floods, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, avalanches, drought, extreme temperatures, severe storms, volcanoes, hazardous spills, industrial accidents, dam breaches, disease outbreaks, environmental contamination and terrorism, according to a briefing report for local governments on the changes under the Emergency and Disaster Management Act.
The amendments, the first in three decades, passed in 2023 under then-Premier David Eby’s New Democrats and go into force in January 2027.
The province’s local governments must start putting together risk assessments and emergency management plans for any disaster they could face, including how to reduce risks, and as well as plans to keep their communities running after they’re hit by major disasters.
The 188 municipalities and regional districts have until 2031 to produce assessments and plans.
Sarrah Storey, president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, says she is encouraged by the fact that premier-designate Lorne Doerkson has said that emergency preparedness is a priority.
But local governments have long said they can’t afford on their own the cost of reducing disaster risks, which are increasing because of climate change.
“Local governments really want guaranteed, long-term funding and a capacity framework. They want a three-to-four-year commitment,” said Storey, mayor of Fraser Lake in north-central B.C.
Assessing and reducing disaster risks — which include upgrading dikes and increasing floodplains, and creating firebreaks and thinning forests around communities — can be incredibly expensive.
And while the province has previously put up tens of millions of dollars in short-term funding and other money for individual projects, including $76.6 million to upgrade the critical Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford, it’s nowhere near the billions of dollars of projects needed to reduce risks, outlined in a 2022 Postmedia News investigation.
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For example, Delta, which faces flood threats from the Fraser River and the ocean, estimates dike and other upgrades will cost $3 billion.
During last month’s election campaign, at a stop in the Interior town of Summerland, Doerkson announced that the Tories would implement a wildfire plan to protect the province’s communities. The plan includes buying water bombers, clearing dangerous fuels, speeding up safe prescribed burns, helping crews work together faster and funding early detection technology.
The Conservatives didn’t put a cost to clearing dangerous fuels or speeding up controlled burns, but stated that $400 million would be spent on expanding the water-bomber fleet and another $100 million on a technology innovation fund.
Still, the new government has less room to increase spending as it’s facing a $13.8 billion budget deficit this year created under the NDP.
The Conservatives said they will also tackle floods, drought and heat, although they didn’t provide details.
B.C. Conservative party officials say that until the cabinet is sworn in, and someone is appointed minister in the area, it wouldn’t be appropriate to weigh in on how the emergency management changes would be handled. The changes also require local governments to consult with and co-ordinate their plans with First Nations.
A UBCM survey of local governments has already shown meeting the new emergency management stipulations will be a big job. That survey found that it’s likely that all local governments will have to undertake or upgrade risk assessments, which can cost as much as $1 million.
The survey found that consultants who carry out this work often don’t have expertise in integrating Indigenous knowledge and the effects of disasters on the most vulnerable populations, two requirements under the provincial legislation.
Scientists have been warning that climate change will drive more frequent and severe wildfires and flooding, as well as drought and extreme-heat episodes.
The costs of responding to wildfires and floods is exploding in B.C. The costs of flooding, wildfire, landslides and extreme heat in 2021 alone was estimated at as much as $17 billion.
Fighting wildfires in the past decade has cost nearly $6 billion, which doesn’t include billions of dollars in lost commercial timber value, environmental costs that include degradation of watersheds, lost business income and health costs.
Storey noted that if you can reduce the risks and impact of these natural disasters, then you will be spending less on the response and recovery.
Public Safety Canada says that every $1 invested in pre-disaster mitigation saves between $7 and $13 in future damage, response and economic costs, depending on the study and specific hazard.
Robert Gray, a wildfire ecologist with decades of experience in B.C., also said that it’s critical to have consistent and adequate money to carry out this emergency management work.
He said B.C. could take some lessons from its neighbours south of the border — including Washington state, Oregon and California — which sets targets for the amount of forest to treat to reduce wildfire risk through measures such as thinning or controlled burns, and funds them and reports publicly on progress.
Gray, who contributed to the 2003 firestorm provincial review, which launched B.C.’s approach to building wildfire resiliency, noted that B.C. does none of that.
He added that tackling the new requirements under the province’s emergency management changes will be difficult given the province’s huge deficits. It will be tough to get Victoria to dedicate even $100 million a year to this, he said.
Gray says that’s why the province should take a long-term approach to building resilience against natural disasters.
“You’re going to have to build capacity to do this, and build a multi-decade plan, that gradually increases treatments over time,” he said.
