Whereas the landscape of many rugged outdoor areas of BC face exposure to multiple hazards with potential for natural disaster, such as forest fires, landslides and flooding which impact residents as well as the traveling public; And whereas the majority of provincial funding that is available is for response-related activities after an event has occurred: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM request that the Province allocate funding to support more pro-active measures for risk management of regional geo-hazards through the establishment of consistent and regular monitoring.
Ministry of Forestry, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development The Province does undertake broad-scale proactive monitoring to address several geohazards, including through the provincial forest fire and river forecasting programs. For example, the River Forecast Centre monitors and forecasts flooding based on data from over 300 sites in BC to inform flood advisories at regional scales. The Province has funded the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund CEPF, which includes a Structural Flood Mitigation component with eligibility for installation of hydrometric stations to improve river forecasting and flood response e.g., monitoring equipment. The Province will continue to work with the federal government to develop new and expanded application-based mitigation funding programs that can fund the installation of hazard monitoring networks, particularly where this is identified as the most effective approach to reducing disaster risk for a community. Emergency Management BC EMBC encourages local authorities and First Nations to work collaboratively in a regional approach to shared installation, operations and maintenance of monitoring networks. Leveraging partnerships with educational institutions and private resource companies may also help reduce operating costs for regional hazard monitoring systems. The province has generally supported authorizations, where required, to enable monitoring installations. The Province may also carry out more local monitoring for specific research purposes, or to help protect provincially-owned infrastructure e.g., highways from landslides, erosion, or other geohazards. Geological, hydrological and other natural hazard monitoring that may be required at a local level to supplement existing provincial programs falls within local government jurisdiction and responsibility, for the purpose of local emergency preparedness and response. Funding support for these initiatives may be available through EMBC and other programs. FLNRORD, EMBC and other agencies within the province are willing to work with local governments to advise and address matters of local importance where feasible.