Office of the Premier
More Emergency Support Services (ESS) responders will be prepared to provide support to evacuees during emergencies thanks to new streamlined training.
“Last summer, we heard from people who wanted to help evacuees but faced barriers in getting trained to do so,” said Bowinn Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. “We’re acting on lessons learned by rolling out a new one-day training option to enable more people to respond in times of need, helping to ensure that evacuees are supported in an effective and timely manner.”
ESS is a provincially funded program administered by local governments and First Nations, which provides temporary support, including essentials such as accommodation, food, clothing and transportation, for people and families that are unable to meet their needs when they are evacuated. During an emergency event, local governments and First Nations will share information about how to access ESS, such as at a reception centre.
The Province is launching a one-day training model for ESS responders in response to feedback from communities and input from the Premier’s expert task force on emergencies. The one-day training administered by the Justice Institute of B.C. condenses the current week-long training model, allowing people to rapidly become trained as an ESS responder during emergencies.
“Streamlining the training program for Emergency Support Services responders is an opportunity to provide the necessary training for new ESS responders, while reducing the time commitment that volunteers need to make to be prepared to help people who are evacuated,” said Tanya Spooner, manager of emergency programs, City of Prince George. “The ability to bring in new volunteers and have them trained within a single day will vastly improve the ability to accept drop-in volunteers during an evacuation.”
The new one-day model will go live on May 4, 2024. The course will prepare new ESS responders to provide support in-person and by phone so that evacuees can receive the supports they need. It will also increase ESS responders across the province who can assist local ESS teams with emergencies happening in other areas of B.C. The new course also trains responders how to conduct a trauma-informed needs assessment and offer supports in a culturally safe manner.
The Province is also supporting almost 100 local ESS projects with approximately $3.3 million through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF). Funding will help communities expand their capacity to provide ESS through volunteer recruitment, retention and training, and the purchase of ESS equipment.
The funds will also support the modernization of local ESS programs to move toward digital registration and offer remote support. This will help communities move to online ESS registration and allow direct payment to evacuees. Additionally, funding will focus on promoting knowledge sharing, enhancing mutual aid between communities and allowing applicants to act as host communities for evacuees.
Funding will go toward projects throughout B.C., such as:
- Hosting a series of local training sessions for volunteers, purchasing laptops, printers and ESS branded clothing for responders, sending 10 volunteers to the annual Network of Emergency Support Services Teams (NESST) conference and hosting two annual volunteer-recognition events in Kamloops.
- Hosting a mass-evacuation exercise at Camp Homewood on Quadra Island for the Strathcona Regional District to better prepare the Campbell River and Quadra Island area to serve as a host community for evacuees, purchasing group-lodging supplies such as generators, cots, space heaters and dehydrated-food rations, regular training for ESS responders and volunteer-recognition dinners for each ESS team in the region.
- Purchasing a trailer to create a mobile ESS reception centre with emergency supplies, internet, computers and PPE to support evacuees in the community of Iskut First Nation, which is five hours from the nearest community.
- Purchasing headsets for a remote call centre to support evacuees during large-scale evacuation in other communities, a trailer for new supplies for group lodging and the plan to host an ESS bootcamp for the village of Granisle by the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako.
- Purchasing ionizing air purifiers to clean air at evacuation sites and laptops, support two ESS responders to attend the NESST Conference, and fund more training for ESS responders in the Fraser Valley Regional District.
The CEPF helps communities better prepare for and mitigate the impacts of climate-related emergencies by funding local projects and initiatives in several categories. These include disaster-risk reduction and climate adaptation, public notification and evacuation-route planning, and emergency-operations centre equipment and training.
The Province has invested $369 million into the CEPF since its establishment in 2017. Approximately $176 million has been provided to First Nations and local governments through the CEPF for more than 1,800 projects. This includes more than $13.5 million to support local ESS teams.
Quotes:
Kyleen Toyne, emergency support services director, Williams Lake First Nation –
“This funding will enable Williams Lake First Nation to deliver culturally centred support during small or large-scale emergency events, ranging from residential-structure fires to full-scale community evacuations, while creating more collaboration and training opportunities with neighbouring municipalities and Indigenous communities.”
Cathy Semchuk, emergency program co-ordinator, Columbia Shuswap Regional District –
“Emergency events are happening more often and with greater intensity. For ESS teams to successfully respond to these larger and longer events, we need knowledgeable and confident volunteers. This new streamlined training provides local governments and First Nations with another tool to help create and strengthen resilient responders.”
Shaun Koopman, emergency services manager, Strathcona Regional District –
“We were inspired by how the Fraser Valley Regional District and Camp Hope came to the aid of the Lytton community following their tragic displacement. The west coast of Vancouver Island may face a similar tragedy if a distant tsunami causes a mass displacement of west coast villages, hamlets and First Nation communities. The support through this grant allows us to bring together key partners in Camp Bob, Camp Homewood and facilitators to help us better understand the Camp Hope community-care model.”
Natasha Hartson, community and emergency supports supervisor, City of Kamloops –
“The provincial funding supported the development of localized made-in-Kamloops training for ESS responders. This training will help both evacuees and responders by giving volunteers the tools they need to best support evacuees during an emergency."
Craig Smith, fire chief, Vanderhoof Fire Rescue –
“Through the generous support of EMCR, we will be bringing training to our community to better prepare our team of volunteers to respond to evacuations as a result of emergencies and disasters. This will result in timely training available to all volunteers, rather than asking volunteers to travel to another community to receive training. Local training will also benefit the team to prepare for geographically relevant emergencies.”
Quick Facts:
- The new course will be available in three formats to provide better accessibility: instructor-led, in-person; instructor-led, online; and self-paced, online.
- The existing longer-form course and its recommended prerequisites will still be available online to those interested.
- In summer 2023, approximately 24,300 households were placed under evacuation order and more than 7,000 households requested and received support from Emergency Support Services.
- The Province’s work to modernize ESS resulted in evacuees receiving more than $2 million in support for things, such as food and incidentals, by Interac e-Transfer during mass evacuations due to the wildfires in August 2023.
- The Premier’s expert task force on emergencies was established in October 2023 to provide strategic advice and action-oriented recommendations about how the Province can better support people on the front lines of emergencies, enhance support delivery for evacuees and apply lessons the Province has learned in preparation for the next emergency.
Learn More:
For more information about Emergency Support Services, visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/emergency-management/local-emergency-programs/ess
To register for ESS when directed, visit: https://ess.gov.bc.ca/
For more information about the Premier’s expert task force on emergencies, visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/emergency-management/emergency-management/emergency-activation/em-taskforce
For more information about Community Emergency Preparedness Fund, visit: https://www.ubcm.ca/funding-programs/local-government-program-services/community-emergency-preparedness-fund
A backgrounder follows.
