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City of Grand Forks approves emergency management agreement with RDKB

Grand Forks city council approved an emergency management agreement (EMA) with the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.
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The City of Grand Forks and the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary have entered into an emergency management agreement

Grand Forks city council approved an emergency management agreement (EMA) between the City of Grand Forks and the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.

The EMA allows streamlined co-operation between individual municipalities and the regional district, including the sharing of resources, manpower and equipment, in times of disaster or emergency.

All participating municipalities agree to contribute resources to other municipalities or the regional district on request, while reserving the right to maintain adequate resources for their own anticipated needs.

In addition, the plan calls for the municipality requesting assistance from others to reimburse those municipalities providing the extra assistance.

Grand Forks Mayor Brian Taylor said, “It’s a great deal for us; by co-operating with the region we can ensure that when there is an emergency, we can respond with all the resources that are available. There is no loss for us and there is everything to gain.”

Grand Forks Fire Chief Dale Heriot agreed. “It’s going to be of great benefit to the city.  It gives us more help and variety of resources and especially in the event that we have to open up an emergency operations centre; regional district personnel would give us a hand in case we have a big event. That just helps the citizens of the community get the work done much quicker and more efficiently.”

The EMA establishes very clear procedures for emergency response, including the chain of command. “It’s actually much better,” Heriot said, “Because you are not going to get all the confusion between agencies.”

Both Taylor and Heriot believe that the financial burden on municipalities and local taxpayers will also be eased under the plan in case of large-scale emergencies.

“When we declare an emergency, the province kicks in for a lot of the cost for that when we are working as a co-ordinated regional effort and so the provincial help removes much of the burden on the taxpayers,” Taylor said.

Heriot said, “As long as we have a task number through Emergency Management BC, then we can recoup a portion, or possibly all of the funds, that we had to lay out.”

Both feel the city and its residents should be pleased with the agreement. “Whether it is a flood or a fire,” Taylor said, “or even when we have major accidents on the highway where we have to bring in resources from outside of the city, it is nice to know that those resources are available when we need them.”