By Cheryl Jahn

Frizzell Promotes PG As Regional Emergency Centre

Nov 20, 2018 | 2:55 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Councillor Garth Frizzell is on Ottawa on Federation of Canadian Municipalities business and he says he what’s to promote the idea of Prince George as an emergency resource centre to the Federal government, in light of significant, back-to-back wildfire seasons.

“The first year, I thought that maybe this was a one-off. But then the next year we had the second largest in history.”

After the 2017 wildfire season in the Cariboo, the provincial government hired George Abbott to review the response. One of the recommendations from that “Addressing the New Normal: 21st Century Disaster Management in British Columbia” report reads: 

24. (Strategic Shift #2) Establish emergency centres of excellence in Interior locations to support largescale
disaster response.

Rationale — An emergency centre of excellence must be of sufficient size, capacity and organization to manage a large influx of evacuees
on short notice. Events of 2017 demonstrated the need for such high-capacity and high-functioning centres.

Arts & Entertainment

Theatre Northwest begins run of the final play of the 2024 season

1h ago

Politics

Newly minted NDP Labour Critic Tours Northwest B.C. with MP Taylor Bachrach

1h ago

Tax season

Days away from deadline, 1 in 4 Canadians still haven't filed taxes

13h ago

“Prince George is a great staging area,” says Frizzell. “We’ve got the fourth longest runway in Canada here,  a great spot to have a concentration of emergency services.” 

In 2017, Prince George accommodated ten thousand evacuees from the Cariboo and this past summer, another 1,300 evacuees were housed here from out west.