UBCM Success for Lions Bay Council
- kc dyer
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
Emergency Water Treatment proposal to go to Province
A late-breaking resolution out of this year's Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) meetings has received a surprise approval, Village Council has been informed.
According to the summary on their website, this year, the UBCM considered 275 potential resolutions. Due to time constraints, neither of Lions Bay's proposed resolutions were considered by the Executive during the event. However, Council received two pieces of correspondence at the end of November from UBCM President Cori Ramsay. These letters addressed resolutions presented at the meetings in September, but not heard by the UBCM Executive until after the event.
While Ramsay and her group denied a Lions Bay-sponsored resolution asking that the province strengthen regional Emergency Management capacity, a second resolution on the topic of Emergency Water Treatment facilities met with approval.
Because of the time issue, Councillor Neville Abbott, who represented the Village at this year's UBCM, was not given the opportunity to present these resolutions before the UBCM Executive. However, the briefing notes that were presented to the Executive after the event touched on three specific points:
Mountain watershed communities are vulnerable to wildfire-related water contamination, which can compromise water quality for years after an event.
Small communities also face the challenge of the tremendous costs of the infrastructure required to address such contamination, which is often well beyond these municipalities' financial means.
As such, Lions Bay requested that the province acquire and maintain portable water treatment units to provide emergency assistance to communities impacted by water contamination, which would help ensure a swift response to the initial problem as well as minimizing the risk of long-term water supply disruptions.
Specifically, Abbott asked for "one to three skid-mounted, 500,000-gallon-per-day (GPD) water treatment plants", which would be held in reserve for emergency deployment to B.C. communities experiencing significant water contamination resulting from wildfires or other disasters."
The committee's positive response to this request means that it will be presented to the province with the backing of the UBCM Executive.
In their letter, the UBCM Executive noted that they had accepted the request with a friendly amendment, which took away the specific number and size of units. Instead, the resolution presented to the province will ask to "acquire and maintain portable water treatment plants to be held in reserve for emergency deployment to communities experiencing significant wildfire-related water contamination, ensuring rapid response and long-term water security for vulnerable communities."
Councillor Neville Abbott, Chair of the Village Infrastructure Committee (IC), says he is pleased with this result, and thanked everyone who supported this initiative.
"Special thanks to Tony (IC member Anthony Greville) who helped me with the council reports and resolution writing that led up to this success," Abbott said, after the news was announced.
“At the UBCM I was encouraged by the positive response from our meeting with EMCR (Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness) and how this proposal resonated with many other smaller communities and First Nations represented at the conference. This gives me confidence that with a little more advocating we will see this idea executed in the next year or two for the benefit of the many communities that face these climate emergencies.”
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