Metro Vancouver updates mutual-aid agreement for smaller municipalities – BC

When an emergency happens in one of Metro Vancouver’s smaller communities, resources and services are shared as part of a regional mutual-aid agreement.

That was the case last December, when a landslide swept down Lions Bay’s Battani Creek, killing Dave and Barb Enns.

The crisis was beyond the capability of the local municipality, so multiple agencies assisted, including Metro Vancouver Emergency Management.

Metro Vancouver Emergency Management’s Brant Arnold-Smith said the agency helped by “adding incident command structure at the site, ensuring that the 46 agencies that were involved in that response, in that high hazard environment, were working collaboratively together and efficiently.”

Metro Vancouver has now updated that mutual-aid agreement to better prepare for the next emergency.

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“What we want to be looking at is what role Metro can play to potentially convene a conversation amongst small communities to explore how they might by able to share services to develop economies of scale,” said Jonathan Cote, Metro Vancouver’s Deputy general manager of Regional Planning during a Small Communities Committee Meeting on Thursday.

As the region grows, Metro Vancouver may consider additional options.

“There is the ability to form multi- jurisdictional emergency management offices or organizations and that is something that may be looked at in the future,” Arnold-Smith said.

Planning for future emergencies is sure to be ongoing, as agencies work to best protect property and lives.

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