A group of eight from the City of Prince George have returned from the Emergency Support Conference in Kamloops that wrapped up over the weekend.
Roughly 300 people registered for the event, which talked about the likelihood of another challenging wildfire season in the province.
Emergency Preparedness Manager, Tanya Spooner explained what took place over the two-day event.
“Some of the highlights were the ability to participate in a pilot of the new ESS training that the province has unveiled this year and we also heard from the Ombudsmen who talked about his report on the 2021 BC wildfire season.”
She added with the province experiencing high-drought levels, changes to wildfire response were needed and first identified by Premier David Eby.
“Topics from how do we prepare our community, how do we get people to prepare themselves and their families to respond quickly and how do we respond better in a mass evacuation situation.”
“I had the opportunity to speak on behalf of the task force with those changes myself and we just have a ton of learning opportunities – everything from how to respond with empathy to learning more about our partners with the First Nations Emergency Support Services Society, Health Emergency Management BC.”
In October of 2023, Spooner joined Cheslatta Carrier Nation Chief Corrina Leween as the two northern representatives selected to the group.
Topics discussed included how to improve response during mass evacuations along with setting up their Emergency Response System where people can register online.
Prince George will host the conference again next year.