Premier Horgan has announced the renewal of the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) with $31 million in new funding. The program supports community resiliency in the face of wildfires, floods and other emergencies. CEPF will provide two new funding streams, and will be open to all First Nations starting in October 2019. Program materials are available now for all funding streams.
The renewed program will include the original five funding streams:
- Flood Risk Assessment, Flood Mapping and Flood Mitigation Planning, January 24, 2020 next intake deadline
- Emergency Support Services, February 14, 2020 deadline
- Emergency Operations Centres and Training, March 13, 2020 deadline
- Structural Flood Mitigation, October 25, 2019 deadline
- Evacuation Route Planning, April 17, 2020 deadline
Two new funding streams have been added:
- Indigenous Cultural Safety and Cultural Humility Training, December 13, 2019 deadline
- Volunteer and Composite Fire Department Equipment and Training, November 15, 2019 deadline.
The new programs respond to the Abbott-Chapman Report by providing training to emergency response professionals that serve indigenous communities, and equipment and training for volunteer fire departments. An additional $5 million was announced earlier in the month to fund the Volunteer and Composite Fire Department Equipment and Training stream. A total of $36 million in new funding was announced in May.