PENINSULA Power of prayer
Deep sea expedition
UVic researchers sail offshore to place seismic instruments on the ocean floor, page 3 Black Press C O M M U N I T Y
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NEWS REVIEW
Area First Nations come together to bless Child and Family Services building, page 7 Watch for breaking news at www.vicnews.com
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Steven Heywood/News staff
Sidney Seagull welcomes people to the opening night of the Sidney Thursday Night Street Markets on May 15. The markets run until August 28. See photos and video from the opening market evening at vicnews.com and on our Facebook page, facebook.com/peninsulanewsreview.
Sidney’s ready to handle most disasters Disaster management students from Royal Roads say the community still needs better communication Steven Heywood News staff
In the event of a major disaster, Sidney has the infrastructure at the ready to help its residents — but it stands to improve. Those were the findings of a group of Royal Roads University students taking their masters degree in Disaster and Emergency Management. Over the last few months, the group has been meeting with local officials, emergency services and business own-
ers to see how Sidney stacks up to a United Nations risk reduction model. Peter Lemieux, from Edmonton, says overall Sidney did quite well. “There’s always an opportunity to become more resilient,” he said. “Sidney needs to collect independent plans and come up with an overall strategic plan.” Those independent plans, he explained, are those created by different organizations, levels of government and businesses. This, however, is not unique to Sidney,
Lemieux said, noting that it’s a fairly easy fix. What that will do, he continued, is help ensure that in the event of a disaster, all efforts to recover are coordinated and there’s a plan in place for business continuity. In the recent example of flooding in High River, Alberta, businesses there were forced out due to high water didn’t have plans to save their important documents. That, coupled with material losses has meant many businesses will not re-open.
The risk resilience report shows Sidney is making progress in most essential areas graded — from budgeting for a disaster and updating emergency plans, to installing early warning systems and education programs. Sidney is doing very well in performing risk and infrastructure assessments and enforcing realistic building regulations. Councillor Tim Chad says he learned more than he was able to provide to the Royal Roads students. When asked what the Town
will do with this report, Chad said they will use it as a road map. “We can do a lot with it. We can do more of the things that are needed to reduce risk. We can make the Town a bit safer and ensure we get out of the way of the people doing the job and make sure they have the resources they need.” Chad said this will help the Town create a new public safety plan. PLEASE SEE: Short-and-long-term fixes, page 8