As floods and fires are increasing in severity the province hopes to improve its responses.
This means they will be updating the Emergency Support Services (ESS) program to “better meet the needs of people requiring support when they are evacuated from their home due to an emergency.”
ESS is provincially funded and locally administered, providing short-term aid to people who have been displaced or evacuated due to natural disasters.
“Times like last summer are challenging, uncertain and emotional for people, communities and businesses, and we learned a lot about how we can better support people in the future from experience and conversations that are ongoing,” said George Heyman, acting Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness and Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
“Your input is incredibly important and is essential to ensuring our work on improving Emergency Support Services matches the needs of people who require them the most.”
“During the recent wildfire season, the City of Prince George once again assisted evacuees from neighbouring communities. Our team knows first-hand the importance of ensuring that Emergency Support Services is easily accessible and tailored to individuals’ needs,” said Tanya Spooner, task force member and City of Prince George manager of emergency programs. “As part of the task force’s efforts and through this public survey, we aim to gather valuable feedback from people to identify ways in which the Province can further enhance ESS.”
The Province is looking for input from the public at large, but especially first responders, people who have been evacuated, volunteers, and businesses about how the program can be improved.
The survey can be found here, it will be open until February 9th.
The feedback will be collected and analyzed by the Premier’s expert task force on emergencies prior to the 2024 wildfire season.
This task force has been meeting regularly since October, working on improvements in the wildfire offseason.
24,300 households were put under evacuation order last summer.
You can learn more here.