BC NEWS

Thursday, January 4, 2024

The Province wants to hear from people about the supports available when they must evacuate their homes during a disaster. 

The Province is revamping its approach to emergencies to ensure people and communities are receiving the supports they need. A part of this work involves 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.

The ESS program, funded by the Province and administered through First Nations and local governments, provides short-term support to people affected by disasters, including shelter, food, transportation, clothing and incidentals. To gather wide-ranging and diverse perspectives, the Province is seeking feedback from evacuees, front-line workers, volunteers, families and businesses about how ESS could be improved. The public survey will be open until Feb. 9, 2024, at 4 p.m. (Pacific time). The survey can be accessed at: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/govtogetherbc/engagement/emergency-support-services/

The feedback collected from the survey, coupled with information gathered through extensive engagement, will support the Province’s work through the Premier’s expert task force on emergencies to make enhancements to ESS prior to the 2024 wildfire season, as well as long-term changes.

“During the recent wildfire season, the City of Prince George once again assisted evacuees from neighboring 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.”

Over the past few months, the Province held more than 20 virtual and in-person engagement sessions with First Nations, local governments, ESS responders, evacuees and industry stakeholders. These sessions are helping identify opportunities to improve ESS delivery and to better support people through the Evacuee Registration and Assistance (ERA) tool, which allows evacuees to register for supports online.

Enhancements to ESS will also capture on the ground learnings from the 2023 wildfire season and assist in acting on recommendations from the ombudsperson’s report: Fairness in a Changing Climate.

The public survey will help the Province build on improvements made to ESS in recent years, including:

• modernizing ESS through the Evacuee Registration and Assistance (ERA) tool so people can register online (2020);
• introducing Interac e-Transfer to deliver financial supports (2022);
• introducing pre-registration through the ERA tool (2022); and
• releasing an updated ESS program guide (2022) that better reflects current ESS practices and policies, including policies to better meet the needs of Indigenous communities, such as establishing First Nations community navigators and cultural activity locations.

Released by BC Government with edits by PJXM News.