Whereas communities are required to provide essential services including fire safety, and emergency vehicles and equipment for fire safety are costly; And whereas grants for emergency equipment have all but disappeared since the early 2000s, with small communities required to fund 100 per cent of emergency equipment through taxation: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM request the Province of British Columbia to create grants for emergency vehicles and equipment and make them available to all local governments at a cost share of no less than 50 per cent.
Ministry of Public Safety Solicitor General The Province of British Columbia is committed to advocate on behalf of UBCM and BC local governments that, in addition to disaster mitigation, emergency preparedness be an eligible category for local government projects under the Gas Tax Agreement. Provincial officials will discuss with their federal counterparts the eligibility of this type of capital purchase in the development of the Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure stream, part of the federal governments Investing in Canada Plan. Although local governments are not eligible to receive Community Gaming Grants, not-for-profit organizations delivering emergency services to communities may be eligible to apply for funding through the Public Safety Sector or the Capital Projects Sector of the Community Gaming Grants Program. UBCM has launched the 32 million Community Emergency Preparedness Fund, funding for which was announced by the Province in March 2017. The fund is not intended to support local governments emergency management capital costs; however, it is intended to support enhanced preparedness and resilience as key elements of a local governments emergency program. As such, some emergency equipment purchases may qualify for funding consideration.