By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle

A collaborative regional approach to assessing hazards such as forest fires, landslides and flooding in the area has now entered its second phase.

The Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) led program will see collaboration from the four local first nations: the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB), the snpink’tn Indian Band, the Upper Similkameen Indian Band and the Lower Similkameen Indian Band.

They will be collaborating along with six municipalities: Osoyoos, Oliver, Penticton, Summerland, Princeton, and Keremeos to chart a truly regional Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Analysis (HRVA).

An HRVA is a process that identifies sources of potential harm and the likelihood that they will occur in communities. The process identifies the hazards, such as flooding, wildfires, or food insecurity.

The risk level is then identified, determining the likelihood and severity of the possible impact of one of these hazards. Following this the vulnerability aspect is determined, such as the people, infrastructure, industry, resources, or environments that will be most impacted.

Deborah Jones Midleton, who is the senior manager of protective services for the RDOS presented a summary of where they are at with the program to Oliver town council. The project began in January 2025, after each town had to apply for individual funding despite the RDOS taking the reins.

“It’s very exciting to see us all working together for a common goal,” Midleton expressed.

Councillor Petra Veintimilla also shared in this excitement, saying that “It’s exciting when we see a project with all levels of government involved, so the regional district, the municipalities and the first nations, it makes the most sense especially with something like this.”

The RDOS has split the area into sub-regions which will all work together as they face many of the same hazards and risks.

Although the sub-regions are just for collaboration, Midleton did note that every municipality and first nation will be getting their own hazard risk analysis.

Oliver, Osoyoos, Electoral Area “A”, Electoral Area “C”, and the OIB will all work as one sub-region.

Forest fires, landslides and flooding are some of the biggest hazards the region faces, but the RDOS is actually looking at 57 hazards in total. These include the aforementioned but also things like food source interruption, food security, cyber security threats, transportation route interruption, human diseases and drought among others.

The HRVA is a five-phase program which will come to completion in December 2026.

The first phase has now been completed which saw project initiation and planning including developing an HRVA project charter and an engagement plan.

The second phase which is now under way will continue until December 2025, taking up the most amount of time. This phase will see data collection and the actual hazard identification. The RDOS will finalize the sub-regional committees and create the hazard lists in this time.

Phase three will take place from January to April 2026 and will comprise of the risk assessment and prioritization which will take the form of gathering and validating the risk data.

Phase four, from May to August 2026 will see a project review, reporting, and implementation planning. This is where all the information will come together, and they will develop recommendations and prepare a draft report.

Phase five, from September to December 2026 will see the community engagement and project finalization. At this time the final report will be presented and distributed.

For more information, visit the project’s website.