At this week’s committee of the whole meeting, City Councillor Krista Loughton and Mayor Marianne Alto have put together a motion that would see Victoria’s emergency weather response plan updated for the winter months.
Because the winter weather shift in Victoria can catch residents unawares, Loughton and Alto want to make sure the City has a plan in place that will be able to help all community members who are impacted, specifically the unhoused population.
According to the motion that will be considered by council on Thursday, October 24th, every winter, BC Housing coordinates with local service providers to create an Extreme Weather Response Plan (EWR).
This plan can be implemented to provide shelter for unhoused people and protect them from extreme winter weather, when extreme weather is upon the city.
What the EWR plan establishes is the criteria for weather conditions that would see the plan put in place, identifying who the regional coordinator will be, identifying which service providers will participate and establishing the number of available spaces for those impacted.
Apart from BC Housing’s EWR plan, the City of Victoria has its own Emergency Winter Weather Response Plan (EWWRP) that is updated annually to reflect the changing capacity and needs of the community.
The EWWRP is activated by the City if winter weather conditions are present and BC Housing’s EWR plan’s resources are exhausted.
When this is done, additional spaces and shelters are opened to ensure Victoria’s unhoused population has ample space to go to in order to stay warm and dry.
However, according to Loughton and Alto’s motion, other neighbouring municipalities who do not have EWR shelter services or adequate emergency plans for extreme weather often end up sending people into Victoria, which puts additional pressure on the resources available.
The motion points to the example of January 2024, when an extreme weather event exceeded the capacity of BC Housing and the City of Victoria’s response plans.
The councillor and mayor say this occurred because of the additional burden of servicing people coming in from other municipalities.
“The overcrowding posed several issues for Victoria, and it was uncovered that other municipalities sent people to Victoria for emergency weather shelter, assuming this was an acceptable action under a regional protocol. No such protocol exists,” reads Loughton and Alto’s motion.
The recommendations being put forth to city council by the motion are to have staff provide an update on the 2024/25 EWWRP and report back on what other regional municipalities have planned for their own response plans.
Loughton and Mayor Alto specify in their motion that they hope city council will approve this motion swiftly because winter weather could hit Victoria at any time and they want the City to be prepared.
They hope for same day adoption of this motion so staff can report back by the committee of the whole meeting scheduled for Thursday, November 7th.
