The Cowichan Valley Regional District is receiving $150,000 in provincial funding for local emergency operations centres in the region.
Nanaimo-North Cowichan MLA Doug Routley said the funding will help the CVRD’s efforts to enhance its emergency response and recovery efforts at emergency centres around the Valley; including in Duncan, Ladysmith, Lake Cowichan, and North Cowichan.
The funding will assist in purchasing and installing equipment and supplies to maintain or improve emergency operations centres.
Emergency operations centres are an essential part of emergency response, where representatives come together to co-ordinate actions and resources, and to support people responding on the ground.
In April, the CVRD and its municipalities announced that they had established Emergency Management Cowichan, an enhanced regional service to modernize the oversight and delivery of emergency preparedness planning, incident response and recovery support services within the Cowichan region.
With the realities of climate change emerging, Cowichan residents are now facing the potentially annual impacts of atmospheric rivers, heat domes, wildfires, extreme cold and drought.
Building on an existing agreement between the CVRD and its member municipalities, EMC is poised to grow into an inclusive disaster resilience and climate adaptation organization supporting all Cowichan residents.
“People throughout the Cowichan Valley know how important it is to be prepared for disasters and emergencies,” said Routley as the $150,000 funding announcement was made.
“We’re supporting the CVRD in their work to strengthen their emergency operations centre to help more people in the event of an emergency.”