Public Notifications And Evacuation Route Planning Will Strengthen Community Safety

The Province is providing funding to communities in B.C. to improve planning for emergency evacuation routes and public notifications.

“As we face more severe weather events due to climate change, the safety of people remains the top priority,” said Bowinn Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.

“Recent emergencies, such as wildfires and landslides, highlight how important it is that people have the information they need to evacuate safely. By investing in community evacuation route and public notification planning, we’re helping ensure that local governments and First Nations have the tools they need to keep people safe during emergencies.”

The Province is providing 22 communities with a total of $909,000 through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund to develop and update plans, such as for the identification and capacity of available routes and methods of evacuation, and local emergency-alerting systems  that provide information to people in the event of an emergency.

The Province says it has invested $369 million into the CEPF since it was established in 2017.

More than $223 million has been provided to First Nations and local governments for more than 2,020 projects.

Since the stream was created in 2018, approximately $4.5 million has gone to more than 135 public notification and evacuation route planning projects throughout the province.

The fund helps communities better prepare for and mitigate the impacts of climate-related emergencies by funding local projects and initiatives in several categories.

In addition to public notification and evacuation route planning, other categories include:

• emergency operations centre equipment and training
• disaster-risk reduction and climate adaptation
• Indigenous cultural safety and cultural-humility training
• emergency support-services equipment and training.

The CEPF is administered by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities on behalf of the Province.

For more information, visit Government of British Columbia.