History of Engagement
In 2019, the Province committed to a broad public engagement process over multiple phases to ensure partner feedback was considered in drafting new legislation. Throughout 2019, EMBC held meetings with First Nations, local governments, Crown corporations and agencies, provincial and federal ministries, non-profit groups and other groups with a role to play in emergency management.
Engagement centered on the discussion paper entitled Modernizing BC’s Emergency Management Legislation, which outlined the proposed policy direction for legislation. This included reflecting lessons learned from the unprecedented flood and wildfire seasons in 2017 and 2018 and addressing all four phases of emergency management (mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery). The Discussion Paper invited comment and feedback from key partners and any other interested agencies, organizations and individuals. EMBC conducted over 170 meetings, webinars and teleconferences with partners and stakeholders, and received 239 written submissions from the public, other ministries and levels of government, communities, First Nations, businesses and industries, as well as from non-profit and volunteer organizations and emergency management practitioners.
Feedback on the Discussion Paper informed the What We Heard Report, which was released on August 31, 2020. This report summarizes feedback received from our partners and outlines the legislative path forward.
To account for any additional lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, our partners were invited to respond to the What We Heard Report. Additional recommendations were collected during a final feedback period, which ran from August 31 to September 30, 2020. The additional feedback was generally positive. A small number of proposals were not supported and are summarized in the What We Heard Summary Brief