Madeline Baker, Times Chronicle
Oliver and Osoyoos have joined a long list of communities supporting a new Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) grant application for extreme heat risk mapping across the district.
Three other districts and local Indian bands have also backed the application asking for $300,000 from the UBCM Community Emergency Preparedness Fund to prepare for future extreme heat incidents.
RDOS’s application features a three-step plan for risk mitigation. First, they will use Interior Health data on heat-related illness, their own data on population distribution and geography, and recently released information on high-risk demographic groups to create an extreme heat risk map.
This map will reveal population zones with large at-risk population numbers based on health, specific types of illness, socio-economic status and occupation, which will enable RDOS to set up protocols to alert the population, develop response plans for different levels of threat in each zone, and also determine how public and private facilities should respond at each level.
Every local assessment will involve engagement with municipal partners, Indigenous knowledge keepers, local and provincial groups dedicated to vulnerable members of the adult population, and agency stakeholders, to help determine their specific heat response needs and compile them into reports.
Next, RDOS will look into local facilities to find possible homes for public cooling centres, such as ice arenas, community or recreation centres, and other shared community spaces. Where possible, they will develop plans to enhance or repurpose the HVAC systems in these buildings to create emergency cooling stations.
With these two steps complete, the RDOS will turn to parks and outdoor gathering places and determine how their cooling potential can be maximized using solar canopies and emergency air conditioning. This final step will also bring rural areas into the plan by identifying pre-existing structures and planning new ones to act as cooling shelters.
The project will support and address messaging and physical solutions which can be provided to support heat vulnerable people at home or ‘in place’ as well. This will include support for pets and livestock.
The RDOS describes itself in the application as “well placed” to create and manage these new regional extreme heat measures, as the responsibility for regional emergency management does belong to the district, according to bylaws. The hope is that many of their solutions can be duplicated across multiple communities.
Additionally, the RDOS feels that keeping their designs and strategies as similar as possible while still accounting for the unique challenges faced by each community should “tie the communities together more closely” and “ultimately result in more effective and efficacious actions and responses.”
“Extreme heat is a significant threat to communities across British Columbia,” said Osoyoos director of operations Jared Brounstein in his presentation to town council. “As the climate changes it is posing a growing risk to the health and well-being of community members, disrupting natural systems, and could lead to serious economic losses and infrastructure damages.”
Brounstein said it is important for communities to understand the risks associated with extreme heat, and how to prepare, adapt, and mitigate these risks.
“A heat wave [poses] one of the greatest risks to the province with the highest consequences related to public health and social functioning with lesser … impacts to wildlife and aquatic ecosystems, and agricultural productivity.”
In Oliver, Corporate Officer Diane Vaykovich said the province and Interior Health are informing elected officials that there is a need for communities to build resilience and adapt to climate change. This includes a response to heat and wildfire smoke.
Vaykovich noted that staff participated in a one-day training session and live scenario with other jurisdictions and Indian bands.
“It was all about situational awareness and how well we work together and communicate,” she noted.
She added the groups took part in simulated exercises with changing priorities.
The corporate officer pointed out that local governments can now request a Broadcast Intrusive Alert to amplify evacuation orders for flood and wildfire hazards. This is used only when public safety is at risk.
She reported that subscribers to Voyent Alert! are slowly coming on board, with a total of 269 registered.
“It often takes an (emergency) event to get people to sign on,” she added.
Vaykovich said emergency management responsibilities and tasks continue to escalate. That’s why she will make a business case to council in 2023 for a part-time position to manage these responsibilities.
She also noted that a new Emergency Program Act will be released in 2022, which will see increased responsibilities downloaded to local governments.
(With files from Lyonel Doherty)
