NDP response to ongoing extreme weather of south is not sitting well with many communities

From communities in the Fraser Valley and on into the southern Interior the response of the provincial government to the ongoing extreme weather of the last two weeks is not getting much praise of late; with a number of communities and local governments calling on the Province to step up their efforts an heed the calls from local officials.

As it was from the summer, the Province has been accused of being a little slow in reacting to the situation on the ground, or in this case under the water, with many communities going it alone in the first few days of the weather emergencies of November.

They seemed to find their footing in mid November when the Premier hosted an Information briefing on the provincial response, complete with a string of cabinet ministers in tow to spread the provincial word.

But since then, the frustrations of community leaders have boiled over as the flood waters and landslides continue to bring challenges.

Among those suggesting that provincial system of response is broken is the Chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District Jason Lum, who outlined the frustrations of that government body yesterday.

And while Deputy Premier Mike Farnworth rebutted some of the accusations from the Fraser Valley yesterday, the list of other municipal and First Nations leaders that have expressed similar concerns over the response has been growing and does seem to point to a less than organized approach to lending a hand when one is needed most.

Princeton's Mayor last week took to task the level of bureaucracy required to get simple assistance to hard hit communities, while some Indigenous communities also expressed their frustration at the lack of help that they have seen.

Globe and Mail national correspondent Gary Mason, called attention to some of the issues being found further into the Interior, where many communities are wondering where the government is.

Today Skeena MLA Ellis Ross, relayed some more frustrations, pointing towards the Interior again and more incidences of stifling bureaucracy overtaking the need for action.

The story from the Fraser Valley Current cited in that social media message, highlights some of the areas where the provincial government has not responded in a timely manner, or with tangible help can be reviewed here.

We noted in November that the Opposition parties had challenged the government response at the time asking for an all party approach to tackling the issues, something dismissed by the government at the time.

With a few weeks having passed since those observations, there's little to suggest that the government heard the message at the time and seems rather tone deaf still as to what municipalities are asking of them.

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, who is the Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Preparedness delivered some of the Provincial response in an Op-Ed contribution to CFJC in Kamloops last week, hailing some of the work done so far by the government, but like the Deputy Premier and her boss in Public Safety, she too seems to be missing the sense and the amount of welling anger at the province at the moment.

While the work of those on the ground in the immediate areas, whether local officials and residents, provincial employees, highways workers, emergency responders, Canadian military and ordinary British Columbians  working to save their communities has been inspiring.

For many, the same can't be said for the efforts of the provincial government.

Considering the growing volume of concern that is being found from municipalities across the storm ravaged areas of late, the BC NDP is at the moment fulfilling the theme of the famous statement of Ronald Reagan from the mid-eighties, that when he noted of the nine most terrifying words that you don't want to hear are:

"I'm  from the government, and I'm here to help"

The provincial government had best step up their response beyond the media briefings and start to listen to the voices of the communities that are looking for some leadership at the moment from their senior partners. 

Ready  take on a real all hands on deck approach to reducing the growing list of irritants and lack of response and respect that the municipal governments seem to be dealing with beyond the actual emergencies that they are facing.

More notes on the situation across the province and the response, or in some cases lack of response can be tracked through our political Blog D'Arcy McGee.