Emergency Planning Secretariat

Gillian Fuss, EPS Coordinator Maggie Mazurkewich, EPS Outreach Assistant

Firstly, we are happy to announce that Aitchelitz Chief Angie Bailey has joined the Emergency Planning Secretariat (EPS) Leadership Committee! Chief Angie Bailey brings a wealth of experience as political representative with the S’ólh Téméxw Stewardship Alliance through the BC Collaborative Stewardship Forum.

With over one year as an established organization this fall, we hosted a Strategic Planning Session with communities and had a What We Heard Report produced to inform further strategic planning work with our Leadership Committee. We are in the process of formalizing our strategic planning documents to share with communities, including a Strategic Plan on a Page, Work Schedule, Terms of Reference, and Communications Strategy. We hope to take our strategic planning work to communities and tribal groups for further discussion and refinement with the hopes to secure Letters of Support.

We continue to engage with the Fraser Basin Council and the Province of BC on the Lower Mainland Flood Management Strategy (LMFMS) and Provincial Flood Strategy. Fraser Basin Council (FBC) has presented the Draft 1 recommendations of the LMFMS to Mainland Coast Salish communities and the Joint Program Committee for review prior to completing a Draft 2 with governance and funding recommendations. Following this, we hosted a Tier 1 Discussion with communities and a panel of local experts to critique the Draft 1 recommendations and enable a space for community discussion. Based on that response, EPS has requested pause in FBC strategic developments to allow for the opportunity for full community engagement to review and comment on the proposed direction in the Draft 1 Strategy.

We are working on the next steps in this process, and working with Mainland Coast Salish First Nations to understand their response to the Draft 1 Strategy. All communities are encouraged to either provide comment to FBC directly or with us as part of a regional response.

In addition, we are pleased to have formally engaged Sto:lo Research and Resource Management Centre as consultants to prepare the flood mapping work for the Rising Waters and Mainland Coast Salish Flood Risk Assessment project.

This project, in partnership with Kwantlen First Nation and Fraser Basin Council, will produce flood maps for communities to identify risk to infrastructure and things of value for communities to address through emergency planning, land use planning and other regional planning initiatives. We are kicking off this work with a select group communities and will refine our process as we carry out this work with all interested communities prone to flood risk.

Following the new ministerial appointments from the 2020 Provincial elections and as Bill C-15 rolls out the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we continue to monitor work to modernize the Emergency Program Act.

To date, the Province has produced a Discussion Paper and a What We Heard Report, and further legislative consultation is required with First Nation communities. Through a tripartite agreement between the Federal government, Province and First Nation Leadership Council, EMBC was funded $10 million over 10 years to provide Emergency Management services to BC First Nation communities.

In order to address this work, EMBC has hosted Indigenous Partnership Tables with the 6 regions across BC to critical review. EMBC is hosting a Partnership Table Conference during January 18-22, 2021 which we hope all communities will be able to participate. We are hosting a Tier 1 meeting prior to the conference to review how the Partnership Table process is working for communities and provide a space for further community discussion. EPS will continue to provide honoraria to encourage meaningful participation in all our hosted events, and advocate for additional capacity for Mainland Coast Salish communities.

EPS hosted a Winter Coastal Roundtable with coastal communities with presentations from Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Storm Surge Forecast Centre on the seasonal outlook for winter coastal storms and king tides outlook and preparations for the remainder of the year.

We also continue to be available for support of any communities during winter emergencies season, and in preparing for freshet, and hopefully in the last few months of COVID!

Please contact us anytime with questions or requests, we would love to hear from you! - Gillian Fuss at gillian.fuss@emplans.ca or Maggie Mazurkewich at maggie@emplans.ca.