Concerns over the loss of income and the processes around evacuations that occurred during the Nk’Mip wildfire were a hot topic in a recent Destination Osoyoos board meeting, according to councillor Myers Bennett.

In his report to council, Bennett said there was “a lot of concern about occupancy drop and big discussions on the drop in business because of the forest fires and concern about how evacuations were handled,” he said.

He said feedback from motel operators indicated that because tourists were “told to leave town,” they responded by asking for their money to be refunded. Bennett said that while evacuees only filled motel rooms for a couple of days, tourists were out of town for two weeks and as a result, “motels were out of the extra 10 to 12 days” of income.

Bennett suggested that a “post mortem meeting” or similar should be held to clarify the processes. He added that motel operators also wanted to know “who is going to fund them for their empty rooms because that is their main income all summer.”

He added that he was asked how the evacuation process works and who to go to for information when evacuations are announced. “They were asking me how it will be handled, what happens, who to go to for information – is it the Forest Service, the emergency services, the province, the RDOS, the town?”

“Who makes the decision and who tells people to evacuate and where to go?” He asked, added that there was confusion because multiple bodies were all providing information. “Maybe we all need to sit down and discuss what happens here so that the motel owners get some explanation and understand the process,” he said.

In reply, Allan Chabot, chief administrative officer for the Town, said: “I don’t know that there is any process for them to request reimbursement for lost income.”

As for the provision of information, he highlighted that the Town participated in the RDOS and EOC updates, “that were pretty thorough actually, and pretty well done in my view.”

He did acknowledge that there was some confusion amongst the public and that a debrief on the activation of the emergency operations centre needed to be undertaken.

As for the issue of tourists being told to leave town, Chabot said: “Keep in mind the Minister for Public Safety for the Province of British Columbia was recommending people either depart or not go to the entire Okanagan during fire season and so that’s not on us.”

The Town will be conducting a debrief with the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB), the RDOS, and with representatives of Spirit Ridge to talk about how they can do better. “It wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t terrible either,” he added.

Chabot also underscored that Emergency Social Services are not intended for visitors to a community, they are intended for residents that are displaced. “The advice to visitors from Emergency Social Services and the province is that if you are a visitor you need to depart the area and return home.”

At this point, Mayor Sue McKortoff noted the unfortunate situation of having her words misquoted by certain media outlets as saying that all tourists should go home. “It’s unfortunate that things get reported very quickly because I think people want to get their news out very quickly before anybody else and it’s not always fact-checked.”

As for the loss of income for local motels and hotels, McKortoff said, “It was unfortunate but it was nobody’s fault and things change radically from day to day sometimes. So I totally understand why they were concerned but I don’t think it was anybody’s fault.”