Lyn Hall wrapped up his final Union of BC Municipalities Convention as PG Mayor.
It ended today (Friday) in Whistler following an address by Premier John Horgan.
As for what stood out to him over the past few days, Hall noted wildfire preparations are once again in the spotlight after what happened in the Cariboo five years ago.
“Let’s face it, we faced that in 2017, and when you talk about emergency preparedness, it’s about what you do locally if in fact, you have to evacuate your community or as we did, welcome thousands and thousands of people.”
“Those kinds of conversations and presentations have been around for quite some time – not just in 2022, but it started in 2016 and 2017 as a result of what we saw with the wildfires. But, they had garnered more attention and that is a good thing.”
Hall added on top of emergency preparedness, many northern communities are in the same boat when it comes to social issues like drug addiction and aging infrastructure.
“It’s about things we are dealing with from a social issue perspective. The opioid crisis, mental illness, the homelessness on our streets – that was really a large part of the conversations that I heard.”
“Many of our municipalities have old and aging infrastructure. We had conversations about the need for the municipalities to have infrastructure replacement plans in place, and asset management plans in place. How does that municipality raise those capital funds to be able to start upgrading infrastructure.”
At the end of the day, Hall stated it doesn’t matter what size the community is, the issues are the same for everyone whether it’s public safety or the funding on the capital side for infrastructure.
Hall added with the convention being the first of sorts in about three years, the UBCM presented the right mix of presentations and presenters for the times we are in.
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