B.C. funds another 70 projects under Community Emergency Preparedness Fund

The B.C. government has earmarked another $44 million through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) for more than 70 projects in 63 communities.

The funding under the Disaster Risk Reduction-Climate Adaptation program stream aims to strengthen resilience against climate-related hazards, such as flooding, drought, wildfires and heat.

“With the severe flooding, drought and wildfires we’ve experienced recently, we are seeing direct impacts of climate change here in B.C.,” Bowinn Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, said in a news release this week. “We’re investing in mitigation projects across the province so we can reduce the risk of disasters when they happen. These projects will help communities better protect themselves against climate-related events and increase their resilience in the long run to keep people across B.C safer.”

Among the other projects throughout B.C. receiving funding from the CEPF program are:

• installing a waterline and reservoir that will reduce the impacts of drought on the community for the Kanaka Bar Indian Band, including reducing fire risk, as well as social, health, ecosystem and food system stress;
• completing a bank stabilization project that includes a headwall and pond at the outfall of a pipe along the Xget’tem’ Trail in Kamloops, which will prevent further erosion of the trail during rainfall;
• flood risk mitigation planning to help reduce runoff and unpredictable flow paths for the Giants Head Basin, as well as upgrading a spillway for the Isintok Dam to reduce the risk of dam failure during an extreme flooding event in the district of Summerland;
• risk-management practice and policy development for Nelson, including creating a framework for consistent, risk-informed decisions; Nelson’s 2019 hazard, risk and vulnerability analysis (HRVA) identified wildfire, severe weather and extreme weather including drought as the city’s top three hazards;
• raising the Mountview Dike alongside the Elk River to flood construction levels to prevent flooding in Fernie; and
• completing risk mapping, a risk assessment and a mitigation and response plan for Metchosin specific to shoreline erosion, flooding, drought implications and increasing storm severity.

Read the full provincial news release.