The directors of a volunteer agency that helps disaster victims say they’re concerned about how long the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) emergency program has been “in transition.”
The emergency program, which brings together all local governments, first responders and volunteer groups, was one of the first of its kind in the province and, up until his resignation in early August, it was overseen by a full-time coordinator, Bill Elsner.
Since Elsner’s departure the emergency program has been operating under interim leadership, with Gibsons fire chief Rob Michael as acting coordinator and former Roberts Creek fire chief Bruce Searle as deputy.
Marilyn Pederson is the director of Emergency Social Services (ESS), which provides food, clothing and shelter for disaster victims or evacuees, helps reunite families and helps people access government programs for financial and other assistance.
ESS helped 43 people in 2017, according to the emergency program annual report – mainly victims of house fires.
According to Pederson, they’ve had just a couple of “call outs” so far in 2018, and dedicated about 100 person-hours to training.
Pederson and ESS deputy director Fern Keene told Coast Reporter earlier this month that, with interim leadership at the top, the ESS organization has lost a sense of “connection” with the SCRD emergency program and it’s impacting the morale of volunteers and the ability to attract and keep them.
Pederson and Keene also worry it could be affecting the Coast’s overall emergency readiness. As Keene put it in a letter, “There is no way to describe the situation we find ourselves in other than getting to an urgent situation.”
The SCRD’s emergency and protective services – the Gibsons, Roberts Creek, Halfmoon Bay and Egmont fire departments and the emergency program – report to chief administrative officer Janette Loveys.
Loveys said SCRD staff have met with the ESS directors to talk about their concerns and the SCRD is confident the Sunshine Coast remains fully prepared for an emergency. She said the situation is not unlike any other where a manager or department head is away or a job sits vacant while a new person is hired.
“Any time a position becomes vacant there’s always a review of that position… That work has been done and our HR department has been leading that. This is a full-time resource and we would be looking to support our emergency program with an equivalent full-time role… It could be more than a body, it could mean two bodies, it could mean a variety of people but the equivalent of those resources.”
Loveys said the SCRD is awaiting two consultants’ reports – one on a strategic plan for the fire departments and a second on a review of the emergency program. Both reports are due in January, at which point recommendations will be going to the board.
In the meantime, Loveys said the SCRD has been working to build “continuity” throughout the organization.
“There are a number of staff who’ve been helping out with the emergency program,” she said. “We have some staff now on board who have emergency management degrees and there’s been more integration with our infrastructure people.”
Loveys said around 30 staff members are now qualified to operate an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) if it’s ever required. According to the latest budget status report, the SCRD has spent more than $23,000 so far this year on EOC training.
During the recent election campaign, Pederson and Keene were concerned enough that they reached out to candidates, asking them to commit to seeing that the SCRD moves quickly to hire “a well qualified, experienced emergency measures coordinator with the high standards of the one we have lost [and that] the emergency measures coordinator will have the cooperation and backing of [their] bosses to effectively do their job without hindrance.”
The candidates who responded included Bill Beamish and Darnelda Siegers, who went on to become the mayors of Gibsons and Sechelt and are representing their municipalities at the SCRD.
In a post-inaugural interview with Coast Reporter, Beamish said emergency planning is one of the key issues his council will be watching at the SCRD level.
Siegers, who is also chair of the SCRD’s corporate and administrative services committee, said, “The SCRD should make staffing, planning and educating a priority. We, and our residents, need to know that, should an emergency situation occur, the staffing and systems are robust enough to have it resolved quickly and safely for all involved.”
“People shouldn’t be worried that we’re not providing those services or don’t have the capacity to provide those services as an organization,” she said.
