WHEREAS in the last two winters many Kootenay communities have faced risks of flooding from ice jams on rivers running through their communities; AND WHEREAS municipalities receive support from provincial emergency experts in some planning and during emergencies; AND WHEREAS the real need is to have a comprehensive program to correlate historical data, weather trends, ice floes and monitoring stages in the region to give early warning to possible events: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities petition the provincial government to allocate provincial resources for an early warning system for the protection of our communities from threats arising outside local government boundaries, such as the risk of flooding from ice jams.
Ministry of Public Safety Solicitor General The Provincial Emergency Program PEP and the River Forecast Centre work collaboratively to assess conditions related to a number of water related hazards. This information is then provided to local communities. However, communities are in the best position to recognize any elevated risks they face. It is the local conditions, quite unique to each community, which dictate ice formation and releases. Ice jams are a naturally occurring phenomenon and considered a natural hazard that may affect many communities across British Columbia. Each community must perform a Hazard Risk and Vulnerability Analysis to identify and address the potential hazards they face. There is a free tool kit available on the PEP Website www.pep.bc.ca that is internationally respected. Information from this analysis is fed into local planning processes which is the most appropriate mechanism for dealing with these hazards.