B.C. to roll out new one-day training for emergency support

B.C. is rolling out new training for support services to help with emergencies.

Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, Bowinn Ma, says the province is launching a one-day training model for Emergency Support Services (ESS) responders this May after receiving feedback from communities.

“Last summer, we heard from people who wanted to help evacuees but faced barriers in getting trained to do so,” he said.

“We’re acting on lessons learned by rolling out a new one-day training option to enable more people to respond in times of need, helping to ensure that evacuees are supported in an effective and timely manner.”

ESS, a provincially funded program supported by local governments and First Nations, provides temporary support, food, clothing, and transportation for residents unable to meet their needs during evacuations.

The province says the one-day training condenses the current week-long training, enabling people to become trained as responders quickly.

“The ability to bring in new volunteers and have them trained within a single day will vastly improve the ability to accept drop-in volunteers during an evacuation,” said Tanya Spooner, manager of emergency programs at, the City of Prince George.

Cultural and trauma sensitivity is also added to the new course.

“This funding will enable Williams Lake First Nation to deliver culturally centred support during small or large-scale emergency events, ranging from residential-structure fires to full-scale community evacuations while creating more collaboration and training opportunities with neighbouring municipalities and Indigenous communities,” said Kyleen Toyne, emergency support service director, Williams Lake First Nation.

The province is also spending $3.3 million through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) for close to 100 ESS projects to help communities expand their capacity to provide ESS.

This fund props up the digitalization of ESS support by offering remote support. This helps communities move to online ESS registration, allowing evacuees to receive support through direct payment.

The province says this funding will go towards hosting local training sessions for volunteers, purchasing training materials, hosting a mass-evacuation exercise camp, purchasing a trailer to create a mobile ESS centre, purchasing headsets for a remote call centre, and purchasing ionizing air purifiers to clean air at evacuation sites.

“These include disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, public notification and evacuation-route planning, and emergency-operations centre equipment and training,” it said.