The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George announced that they will be entering into a service agreement with the City of Prince George to provide FireSmart education within the greater Prince George area.
The agreement comes after a successful grant application by the City and the Regional District to UBCM’s Community Resiliency Investment Program. As part of the agreement, the Regional District will develop and implement a FireSmart education campaign targeting residents in the greater Prince George area.
“One of the best things that people can do in mitigating their risk of a wildfire causing damage to their property and home is FireSmart,” Michael Higgins, General Manager of Community Services, told MyPGNow. “As a result of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan work, we’ve identified that providing face-to-face education and support to people to know what it is that they could do best to their properties, and giving them the educational tools that they need to make sure that they’re doing the right things for their properties.”
The purpose of the program is to empower property owners to implement FireSmart principles on their property to assist in safeguarding communities from wildfire. Mitigating wildfire risk through a variety of prevention, preparedness and education initiatives will increase resiliency against the impacts of wildfire.
“The program we’re looking at developing and rolling out is very much in line with what FireSmart Canada has been doing,” said Higgins. “They’re an organization that puts together educational material and we’re going to be using a lot of that material as outreach material to help residents understand to best manage and protect their properties.”
The contract is valued at $126,860.
Also announced, the Regional District is proposing enhancements to its 9-1-1 service. The proposed enhancements include relocating the centre that dispatches fire departments within the service area (FOCC) to the new Prince George Fire Hall currently under construction as well as the development of a back-up location.
The system will also be upgraded as technologies have evolved and to meet federal requirements for Next Generation 9-1-1 by 2023. The total budget for this project is about $5 million, with $3 million of that proposed to come from borrowing, subject to elector approval via an Alternate Approval Process (AAP).
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