On Jan 23, at the Village of Burns Lake’s meeting, Nicole Gerow, Burns Lake Search and Rescue’s member, expressed her concerns about the Emergency and Disaster Management Act (EDMA).
Gerow stated that the Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR) has laid a framework within EDMA that jeopardizes its future operations.
According to EDMA, community search and rescue groups must be recognized under Public Safety Providers (PSP), for which an application process is required.
Gerow said that the PSP application may or may not get accepted, and once it gets rejected, it will take another three years to get a reapplication invitation.
She informed council that Houston’s search and rescue volunteer organization has already been denied or held up with their application to train search dogs like the RCMP Canine unit.
She added that BC Search and Rescue Association and EMCR have also increased the administrative workload. She emphasized that this increase in the documentation process is beyond normal expectancy for a volunteer organization.
BC Search and Rescue Association and EMCR unilaterally decided that any individual of volunteer search and rescue groups who did not attend a search training last year would be automatically listed as on non-operational leave of absence without any consultations.
Gerow stressed that some of their volunteers were on evacuation alert or fighting active wildfires and unable to attend this training. Thus, they were put on leave of absence status.
“We would like to encourage everyone to speak out to the province regarding many issues in the EDMA legislation,” she said.
After the presentation, council decided to draft a letter to the honourable Bowinn Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, indicating that the Village of Burns Lake supports the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako in their request to be active participants in the development and creation of future regulations and policy relating to the new Emergency and Disaster Management Act.