LOCAL GOVERNMENT PLANNING
DISASTER RESPONSE TRANSPORTATION
Disaster Response Transportation (DRT) is the process of moving evacuees from a position of danger to one of safety. DRT also encompasses the movement of critical resources, supplies, and personnel to support disasters during all stages of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Understanding the Need for Disaster Response Transportation
In recent years, Canada has faced a dramatic increase in the frequency and severity of disasters, driven in part by climate change. The 2023 wildfire season stands as a stark reminder of this escalating threat, with wildfires spreading across the country, affecting communities on an unprecedented scale. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated, significant losses of homes and infrastructure were recorded, and millions across North America were exposed to harmful wildfire smoke. In Canada, eight individuals working on these wildfires tragically lost their lives, six of whom were in British Columbia.
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The scale of these events is alarming. Since 2023 alone, six out of the ten largest wildfire evacuations in Canadian history occurred, underscoring the growing urgency to address these challenges. British Columbia, along with Alberta, Quebec, and the Northwest Territories experienced record-breaking amounts of land burned, amounting to millions of hectares in each region. Specifically, BC recorded 2,245 wildfires, burning an area double the size of the previous record, with 208 evacuation orders affecting 24,000 properties and 48,000 people. There were an additional 386 evacuation alerts affecting 62,000 properties with the potential to displace another 137,000 people.
The Disaster Response Transportation initiative aims to establish a specialized framework within British Columbia, designed to provide essential transportation services during emergencies and disasters. This includes the evacuation of residents and the movement of emergency personnel and critical equipment. Initially, the project will focus on the strategic use and augmentation of the existing transit fleet, including both provincial and private resources. Central to this initiative is the establishment of a dedicated DRT Task Force, which will centralize the coordination of assets, communications, and logistics, ensuring that resources are deployed efficiently and managed effectively across multiple sites during emergencies. This dynamic task force is designed to integrate into EOCs are all levels of government, able to facilitate and coordinate evacuations with a higher degree of collaboration and effectiveness.
