Assigned Priority / Notes
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Recommendation
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4
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Communications for each liaison agency must come under the EOC structure of the regional district. This includes all provincial, regional and local agencies. This includes providing a trained Information Officer who is assigned and located at the EOC for the regional district, and will be a key member of their agency information team, thus receiving full access to information for both their agency and the regional district. Of importance, those agencies with multiple operations, must provide a representative from each operation, in order to greatly increase communications across internal operations. This was shown to impact residents negatively, consistently, over the entire length of this disaster. This model is recommended for all regional districts in British Columbia.
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2
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Regional districts must also contribute to seamless coordination of communication activities during disasters across district boundaries, and may consider combining operations under one centre to combine resources, improve organization and information dissemination. We heard many times through the consultations that fires don’t have boundaries, and boundaries mean nothing to residents during disasters. Therefore, this is supported by both nature and residents.
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1
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Information Officers must coordinate a group which develops a communication plan and structure to be used in emergencies. This group should meet once quarterly to discuss challenges and gaps, and continually develop the structure to support their coordination as a group during and after emergencies.
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1
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Reduce the spokesperson roles to one primary and one secondary for each level of media. For local media and videos, there should be one spokesperson with one secondary. For non-local media and videos, there should also be one spokesperson and primary. This will reduce confusion, and increase response time. Generally, the local role should be filled by the Information Officer within the EOC - which is generally not accessible by those in political roles. Political leader(s) are saved for key moments, which are selected by the Information Officer, to highlight the importance of the information they will share. They should not be serving as regular contacts for media beyond those key moments, as they add an extra step of external communication for the information team, which was abnormal in this disaster and does not follow the EOC structure or best practices.
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1
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Appropriate resources - one person on the information team tasked solely to social media when EOC is activated at Level 3 or higher. This will allow an opportunity to monitor activities and upgrade responses to individuals, which may answer other resident’s questions as well, and will reduce calls to the information line.
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1
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Increased use of video is essential in future emergencies. Using a laptop, camera, tripod, and microphone, recorded videos can be completed. The laptop must have Windows 10 (64 bit OS), Intel i3 or better multi-core processor, 2GHz or above, at least 3GB physical RAM (8GB required for HD and 4K videos), and at least 2GB free hard-disk space for installation (SSD-Solid State Disk recommended for editing HD and 4K videos). For live video, a mobile cell phone booster, battery backup, mobile tripod and mobile phone are required. To support video production, one information team member should be dedicated to producing videos at all times during Level 3 and higher EOC activations. This team member must have previous video production experience, and be able to also conduct research, coordination and interviews as required, or be supported by another team member who can conduct interviews. Tasks include coming up with ideas for videos, arranging people to be in interviews, conduct interviews, work with video equipment and editing software, and uploading to online services.
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2
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Using audio from videos as a source, uploading audio to SoundCloud or similar, which at least matches videos and telephone audio updates. This would be included in the duties of the Information Officer tasked with video production. This will include creating short, seconds-long quotes to be used for radio sound bites, which can be linked in media-specific Twitter updates and media releases.
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1
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An alternate system to gather messages and align them to responses would increase satisfaction for residents, reduce response times, reduce staff hours, and reduce mixed messages to residents from multiple sources. This could be done with a frequently-asked-question database accessible online, and possibly by phone. This is a system which could be used in normal business operations, and populated and updated during an emergency.
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N/A
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For communication between agencies, there are multiple alternates to email including Slack and Facebook, which would improve organization and ability to manage incoming and outgoing information into categories immediately. One should be selected and adopted by all agencies, and used during regular operations as well as during emergencies.
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1
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Education campaigns in spring, fall and winter to prepare residents for emergency. Education on terms, preparedness and prevention should be a focus of the first year of education.
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2/3
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Significant public education planning and program to reduce the number of human-caused fires within the CRD. The education will focus on cleaning equipment, staying out of the forest when under high hazard, reduction of careless activities, and the impact of wildfires on residents.
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1
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Develop a comprehensive crisis communications plan.
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1 – Provide links to existing resources
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Develop a communication toolkit for use in emergencies. This will include specific documents for businesses, which will help them prepare for evacuation, the impacts of evacuation on businesses, and tips upon re-entry.
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1
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Creation of a dark site, which is turned on for medium and larger emergencies, and uses an external server. It is recommended this also integrate with social media pages used by the CRD. The dark site should be able to provide an archive of past emergency events for public record, and will still direct users to the CRD web site where applicable.
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1
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A policy and procedure on the expectations and role of an elected official during an emergency, including what are acceptable and unacceptable actions and behaviours.
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1
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Providing regular recorded updates on a phone line should be used whenever the EOC is activated. These can be provided live with various partners, with recording placed on phone line as an option. The information line must be opened within the first few hours of the EOC activation, and be open hours to match the emergency (even if overnight). Residents require the information line especially when a evacuation order or alert is put in place, to answer specific questions about their safety and property. Use of a menu and recorded messages can reduce the number of calls which need to be directed to an operator.
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2
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CBC consider either activating those transmitters across the country (this is not an issue just in the CRD) or handing over ownership of those transmitters to local agencies responsible for emergency operations. Preferable would be for the expert body, CBC, to engage these devices and ensure they are ready for use for emergencies. Dependent on results with the CBC, the CRD should set up a network of AM transmitters which would be used for emergency information updates to all residents, especially those in remote areas who lack access to telephone, mobile, radio, and television networks.
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2 – and/or other widely available channels (on-screen information banner)
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Request Weather Network to provide specific local updates regularly for areas with evacuations.
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1
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Upgrading internet access points at community halls which will be used as information or evacuation centres, to be ready for emergencies when residents will gather to those points to gain information. Immediately request mobile internet and cellular boosting units to be set up in areas impacted by an emergency which have no, limited, or overwhelmed internet/cellular service in their area. Advocacy for cellular network expansion. Strong advocacy to federal and provincial governments to ensure service is greatly improved in rural areas within two years. Significant penalties should be considered if requirements are not met.
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1
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Support development of this network by providing grants for amateur networks for equipment, and integrate operators into the EOC information team. This will improve communications in all locations, and increase local knowledge to decisions made in the EOC.
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