By Times Chronicle Staff
Emergency Support Services (ESS) responders in the region will be better prepared to provide support to evacuees during emergencies like wildfires through new streamlined training and increased funding announced today by the province.
The BC government is also supporting nearly 100 local ESS projects with more than $3.27 million through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF). Funding is aimed at helping communities expand their capacity to provide ESS, as well as support the modernization of their ESS program to include more digital and remote support options.
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) will receive $150,000 for its regional partners – Osoyoos, Keremeos, Princeton and Summerland – to build up their ESS preparedness and capacity.
The town of Oliver is receiving $30,000 to continue their capacity building efforts.
“When an evacuation occurs due to disaster, whether it’s wildfire, catastrophic flooding, or otherwise, Emergency Support Services (ESS) are the ones we need to be there to provide support and resources to those who need it,” says Roly Russell, MLA for Boundary-Similkameen.
“The volunteers do so much, and this investment will provide them with more of the tools and skills they want in order to evacuees safe and cared for.”
A one-day training model for ESS responders starting May 4 is being establshed in response to feedback from communities and input from the Premier’s Expert Task Force on Emergencies.
The new training condenses the current week-long training model, allowing people to rapidly become trained as an ESS responder during emergencies, which will make the training more accessible for many people who want to be volunteers.
The course will prepare new ESS responders to provide trauma-informed and culturally safe support both in-person or by phone, which will help provide more ESS responders across BC in places that might not have a large volunteer capacity.
“The people of the South Okanagan and Similkameen are no strangers to disaster given recent climate-related events, and we all rely on our emergency support services volunteers to help support our communities,” says Russell, MLA for Boundary- Similkameen.
“The province’s investment in Oliver and in RDOS to support those volunteers will continue to build our local capacity and help those that are helping us all”.
The CEPF helps communities to better prepare for and mitigate the impacts of climate-related emergencies by funding local projects and initiatives in several categories. These include disaster-risk reduction and climate adaptation, public notification and evacuation-route planning, and emergency operations centre equipment and training.
The Province has invested $369 million into the CEPF since its establishment in 2017.
