Strategic Plan for Highway Rescue

WHEREAS all drivers in BC need a highway rescue service provided, and all road rescue service is provided by local organizations including municipalities and rescue societies, but provincial funds supporting highway rescue now only reach municipalities through a complex mix of Provincial Emergency Program funding and application-driven grant programs, such that funding is neither predictable nor stable; AND WHEREAS municipalities find it very hard to plan for providing and sustaining essential highway rescue service under this uncertain funding regime, which may in fact keep some municipalities from extending their first responder services to the highways their citizens and all BC citizens rely upon: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities lobby the provincial government Emergency Management BC to create and coordinate a province-wide strategic plan for providing adequate and sustainable road rescue services in BC, in order to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of provincial resources, allow municipalities to better plan for providing highway rescue service, and possibly encourage more municipalities to do so; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this plan would include the following elements: - Assessment of the existing system by which the service is provided throughout the province, showing the variety of providers in each area - Identification of geographic areas that are well versus less well served, and the related reasons - for example, a service provider could be too far away to provide service to an area at reasonable cost, or the service provider could lack training and equipment, or not have an administrative model by which to organize the provision of service - Analysis of the total provincial flow of funds that supports highway rescue service at present, and development of options around a more stable and predictable provincial-municipal partnership in using these funds for highway rescue