Rice, Ross offer differing narratives to discussion on Emergency And Disaster Management Act

 A busy week for the Members of the British Columbia Legislature wrapped up on Thursday afternoon with MLA's discussing elements of Bill 31 - the NDP government's Emergency and Disaster Management Act.

The Government legislation was introduced by Minister Bowinn Ma earlier this week.

The Thursday discussion featured two MLA's from the Northwest, with both Skeena's Ellis Ross and the North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice sharing their thoughts and opinions towards the provinces proposed legislation.

Mr. Ross was the first to speak to the topic, reflecting in part on his time as Chief Councillor for the Haisla Nation.

For the millions watching at home, this bill repeals and replaces, basically, the Emergency Program Act. It's quite the bill. It's 121 pages, 208 sections. It's been quite some time before this bill has been amended, and it's quite timely given the disasters we've been seeing in B.C. for the last five years or so and the significance and the scale of those disasters. 

There's a lot in this bill that actually brings me back to my previous job as chief and council of the Haisla Nation. And it's not my first time reviewing an emergency plan in partnership with B.C. 

In fact, in 2015, my band took it upon ourselves to reach out to the B.C. government at the time, in 2014-2015, to develop a comprehensive emergency plan that aligned with B.C.'s plan at the time. 

It was quite the job. We had to go over every single chapter, every single section, every single clause, even to the point where we actually were trying to resolve what would happen in case of an unmanageable bird flu.

Can you imagine that? Bird flu. It was quite a stressful exercise for our band members as well as our chief and council. We put a lot of effort into it. We had resources within the provincial government that we reached out to, and they helped us navigate through the bill.

Much of his overview explored the issues of Emergency Management from the local perspective, offering both the challenges and rewards for the work taken on by City Councils, Regional Districts and First Nations  around the province.

The MLA recounting a number of incidents that the Haisla addressed through their management planning.

The Skeena MLA also touched on some of the elements from recent fire situations in the province as well as the findings from the Ombudsman's Report recently released into how the province has addressed the issues when it comes to the residents of those regions impacted by disaster. 

As an MLA working in Terrace, the experience I got from forest fire evacuations was another angry incident, where Tahltan members from their region up in northern B.C. were evacuated and came to Terrace. 

They were told to go to Terrace, B.C., but there was nothing there waiting for them. They came to my office, very angrily asking why we weren't prepared for them. I didn't even know that they had been evacuated. I didn't know that Terrace was a location for them to come to. 

We ended up jumping on our phones, and we started phoning up all the local leaders, the gymnasiums and the schools. We phoned up everybody: "Can you house" some people?" "Yes, we can." The networks started working. People started getting into hotels, and they started sleeping in gymnasiums, but we had to answer the question: "How are we going to feed them? How are we going to clothe them? Where are they going to be?" 

Looking at the Ombudsman's report and seeing the firsthand accounts of what people went through across B.C., they had the same complaints. 

So I wouldn't say it's timely, but yeah, maybe after 20 or 25 years, we do have to reconsider the actions that we take in terms of emergency or disasters. But will it work? 

What you're talking about is preventative. We're talking about actions to actually fight fires preventatively, to prevent floods — you can't do anything about the snow; you can't do anything about that — but also in terms of the aftermath, in terms of the care of people. If you say you're going look after them and you develop a program to look after people when they're evacuated, then you've got to live up to that, because that's what people expect. That's what they've been told."

For her part of the discussion the North Coast MLA, returned to her days as Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Preparedness. Recounting some of the measures and lessons that were learned from events during the time she was in the post.

I appreciate you acknowledging me to speak and allowing me a few minutes here to speak on this important piece of legislation, the Emergency and Disaster Management Act. This is something that I'm really passionate about, as you know, Madam Chair, in your role as MLA. 

We have historically worked together, dealing with many emergencies and catastrophic events throughout British Columbia. In my previous role as Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Preparedness, which I held between 2017 and early this year, I learned a tremendous amount, and some of the things that I was sort of gob-smacked about was the fact that when we saw imminent danger happening, whether it was a flood coming or a fire –– well, not fire; that's different, but a flood coming, for example, that our own legislation in government, which we know hasn't been updated since the 1990s, prevented us from actually mitigating any of this imminent danger from occurring. Our own rules forbid us to do so. 

However, as soon as the s-h-i-t hit the fan, we would deploy every resource possible, regardless of what the financial implications were. And so it really taught me that, wow, we're really focusing on the one pillar of emergency management, and there are four: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. And I also learned, speaking of floods, through 2017 and '18, the catastrophic floods that impacted Grand Forks and area, that we really didn't have a lot of supports or even levers within our own legislation or regulations to actually help a community recover after a catastrophe had occurred. 

And so this legislation, I think, is really forward-thinking and progressive. And I recognize that apparently this is unprecedented in Canada, the type of legislation being put forth here. It's a 200-page document that…. You know, we are now focusing on the future, we're focusing on the four pillars of emergency management, and it's not just about responding. So I think this is fantastic news. I hear from members opposite, you know, what took so long, etc. 

But I just want to tell a story that when I was appointed parliamentary secretary in 2017…. I think we were sworn in on a Tuesday. On Wednesday I was given the binder that you need to learn your portfolio, and then I was told: "You and the Premier and the Forests Minister and the Public Safety Minister –– you're all going to wildfire communities on Thursday." And so I had read the first page of that binder, trying to take it all in and learn what I had to learn about this portfolio, and then the summer was so incredibly busy. It was in 2017. It was the worst wildfire season on record. And I spent a lot of time in communities –– rural, mostly –– and learning on the ground firsthand the impacts of, you know, these major fires that we were experiencing. 

And so I think it was not until late fall where I actually read the rest of the binder, which was a good thing that I had…. I learned this way on the ground, because government documents are so full of acronyms and I wouldn't have ever understood that binder had I not been on the ground being with people throughout the province.

Much of her presentation was to share anecdotes about her work and the lessons learned through her time in the Parliamentary Secretary's role, as well as her endorsement of the Government bill under consideration.

I'm standing here today to say that I'm just really proud to support this legislation. I can't wait to vote on it. I know that many people in the communities, whether it's local governments, individual citizens, the firefighters I spoke to, wildfire and even our local firefighters in communities, emergency management personnel, the CAOs that became emergency operation centre incident commanders…. 

I've talked to so many of them over the years, and they were really excited and looking forward to having modernized legislation. I didn't fully understand that when I was first appointed to the role. It sounded so boring and policy-wonkish. But then my experience throughout the years has really taught me how critical this is, how important it is for us to modernize. I'm really happy to stand up here and say this is great news. I can't wait to support the bill.

The topic would form the narrative for many other MLA's through the afternoon, but the last word went to the North Coast MLA, who returned to speak just prior to the departure of the MLA's for their Thanksgiving Week break.

Ms. Rice offering an apology for some unparliamentary spelling earlier in the afternoon,.

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The full transcript of both Northwest MLA's and others participating in the Thursday discussion can be reviewed here.

The video of the Legislature session can be viewed here, Mr. Ross speaks at the 1:22 PM mark, Ms. Rice at the 2:44 PM mark.

A look at the Obmudsperson's report referenced by Mr. Ross,  is available for examination here.

More notes from the Legislature can be explored here.