By Cheryl Jahn

Councillor wants special UBCM resolution

Jun 25, 2021 | 12:41 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – While the City is grappling with issues of homelessness, another crisis persists. Northern Health issued an overdose alert yesterday due to the increased number of drug-related deaths. The opioid crisis has prompted Councillor Cori Ramsay to ask the “… Intergovernmental Resolutions Committee to ask the North Central Local Government Association and the Union of BC Municipalities to lobby the provincial government to modify the definition of emergency in the Emergency Program Act to include health-related emergencies …”

Currently, the definition of “emergency” includes accident, fire, explosion, technical failure or forces of nature.

The City of Prince George was able to declare a local state of emergency during the wildfires of 2017, when the community played host to ten thousand evacuees from the Cariboo.

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“It really triggers a lot of mechanisms in place,” explains Ramsay. “I volunteered during the wildfires and one of the things was provincial funding. When we were accepting evacuees into the city, the Province was paying for things such as groceries, accommodation.”

However, there was much discussion around Council if there was enough time to draft such a resolution by the June 30th deadline. And while many felt it was a valuable resolution, it was agreed a week and a half was too quick to deal with such a heavy issue.

Instead, it will still go to the Resolutions Committee, to be tackled in September.