By Sam Bennison

City of PG

City looks for permanent emergency reception centre

Jan 11, 2024 | 2:29 PM

PRINCE GEORGE—In 2017, when Prince George played home to thousands of evacuees from the Cariboo, the City’s reception center was at the College of New Caledonia. Subsequent years, it moved to the Kin Center Lounge, then the Kin Center Atrium.

“A great example is, last year, we started May 4th,” explains Tanya Spooner, Manager of Emergency Operations. “We went for 139 days and we moved eight times.”

It creates significant impacts on staff and significant costs to the Province. That’s why the City is lobbying the North Central Local Government Association to advocate for a permanent reception center location.

“We know now this is the new normal, where we’re going to have wildfires and evacuations most years,” says Adam Davey, Director for Public Safety at the City. “So, just makes good sense in terms of efficiency and effectiveness to have one centralized location that evacuees can come to.”

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What would be an ideal location?

“In my ideal world, when I started thinking about what space would we look for, something like one of the unused school that has a large space for group lodging, something that has office space, kitchens, bathrooms, showers, that type of thing,” says Spooner.

She says, with the weather the region has seen so far, drought conditions are common, which could lead to another bust wildfire season.