Whereas natural disasters pose an increasing risk to the economic, social, and environmental well-being of British Columbians; And whereas the provincial government is taking action to improve resilience by strengthening disaster preparedness and disaster risk governance in the context of climate change; And whereas the sharing of integrated asset data, information, and knowledge across all sectors is key to improving emergency management and resiliency planning in BC; Therefore be it resolved that the Province of British Columbia be urged to take a strong leadership role and provide long-term sufficient funding and resources to increase the coordination, assembly, and access of asset data, information, and knowledge across multiple levels and sectors of government and stakeholders including First Nations, local governments, provincial and federal government agencies, qualified professionals, and industry sectors.
Ministry of Citizens Services, Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Government is working with multiple levels and sectors of government and stakeholders including First Nations, local governments, provincial and federal government agencies, qualified professionals, and industry sectors to develop a strategy for sharing integrated assets data, information, and knowledge across all sectors to improve emergency management and resiliency planning in BC Ministry staff are developing a framework for data commons, defining the governance structures as well as common principles to safely share data, while also planning the technology platforms that will be needed. An Emergency Management Common Operating Picture, an online mapping tool, has been developed to support emergency management activities including mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. This tool is available to all local governments, First Nations and other partner agencies of Emergency Management BC, and work is underway to enhance the ability for other levels of government including local governments and First Nations, to be able to contribute data to the tool. Additionally, there is active work to increase the use of real-time data for decision making in wildfire response in the province. On October 28, 2019, the Province released a discussion paper that outlines proposed legislative changes to modernize the Emergency Program Act EPA. These changes include legislative obligations on the Province to provide greater data collection, housing and sharing to be available to all emergency management partners. The following proposals in the discussion paper are designed to provide the data regime that is required to improve the emergency management system including: - Establish a legislative requirement for the Province to centrally house and provide transparent data on hazard, risk and vulnerability assessments, or mitigation planning documents which are conducted or prepared by other bodies provincial ministries, Crown corporations and agencies; Local Authorities; and critical infrastructure operators. - Require provincial ministries, Crown corporations and agencies, local authorities, and critical infrastructure ownersoperators to register their emergency management plans with Emergency Management BC. - Establish a provincial obligation to provide hazard data and coordinate with Local Authorities and First Nations as available and requested. The three-month consultation ended on January 31, 2020. The discussion paper is available online at: https:engage.gov.bc.cagovtogetherbcconsultationemergency-program-act-mo…