Recommendations have been delivered to Victoria from the Premier’s Task Force on Emergencies, which has now wrapped up its work.

Charged with covering 9 different areas connected to better coordination, streamlining Emergency Support Services and looking at a better use of technology, the 13 member task force held its final meeting on Monday.

Task Force member, Thompson Nicola Regional District CAO Scott Hildebrand, says while the provincial government will still have to sign-off on any recommendations, he says the process should be relatively quick.

“We had a group of talented Ministry staff there working along side us so that they could actually — in real time — start planning and costing and putting some strategies together,” Hildebrand told the NL Noon Report.

While a variety of different recommendations have been put forward, Hildebrand says one area they did talk a lot about was how to fund local communities who establish Emergency Operations Centers, such as Kamloops, during large scale evacuations — such as the community saw last year.

Hildebrand says one area they dove into was better management of the ESS programs.

“A lot of the discussion was how that could be funded, how that could be more efficient in delivery,” noted Hildebrand.  “I can’t speak to all the details quite yet, because the province will kind of need to go through the funding of all that, and that will get rolled out.”

Hildebrand says one of the big takeaways from the Task Force sessions was a need for better coordination among various stakeholders.

“To me, the most important ones are the engagement with BC Wildfire and EMCR [Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness] and how we’re working with local fire departments, First Nations, other local governments,” said Hildebrand.

It’s expected the provincial government will be rolling out its take on the recommendations in the coming days.

One of the recommendations from the Task Force has already been approved by the provincial government.

That involves the use of app-based technology this year to provide real-time, on-the-ground information from crews to headquarters to better tackle wildfires.

That program — trialed last year — is first going to be implemented in the Kamloops and Coastal Fire Centers, and will then be phased into use across the remaining Fire Centers in the province over the course of this year.

According to the BC government, the “Premier’s Expert Task Force on Emergencies was established in October 2023 to provide strategic advice and action-oriented recommendations on how the Province can better support people on the front lines of emergencies, enhance support delivery for evacuees and apply lessons the Province has learned in preparation for the next emergency.”