Surge Narrows Wildfire Brigade

The survey methodology included the mailing of questionnaires to all owners of property in the Surge Narrows area as well as the ability for anyone interested in the topic to submit their response on the Regional District's website.

The Regional District received 80 responses in total, 26 by mail and 54 via the Regional District's website.

The Regional District will bring a report on the survey results to Board meeting on January 11th, 2023 and the Board will determine whether or not to continue evaluating this proposal.

The survey asked participants to rank 5 different options in order of preference with 1 representing their most preferred option. The following responses were received.

• S100 Basic Fire Suppression and Safety and refresher S100A course as described in this section
• Incident Command System 100 (all members) and Incident Command System Level 200 (officers/leaders)
• Occupational First Aid level one
• Pleasure Craft Operators licence or Small Vessel Operators Permit (all boat operators); and
• Pumps and pumping training based on BCWS curriculum.

The funding for this training would be provided as part of the proposed service, members would not be expected to fund their own training.

Tim Pley & Associates estimated that initial annual cost for this service is $52,000, with an average annual cost of $42,000 per year every year thereafter. Further details on what this would cost your household on an annual basis are provided on pages 5 and 6. The cost on these pages is based on the $52,000 first-year costs provided by TPA and a standard $2,000 charge that the SRD assigns to every new service to cover expenses such staff time to administer the service, legal fees etc.

It would be possible to for the SRD to incur long-term debt to offset some of the capital costs associated with the first-year costs, which would distribute the tax that is requisitioned for this service over a longer period of time (thereby decreasing the costs provided in Table 2. There are many potential options for debt financing and these options are not reflected in Table 2.

Yes, however use of personal watercraft or vehicles to respond to emergency scenes will require operational guidelines regarding response safety and staging, investigation of personal and organizational liabilities and insurance, and consideration of adequate docking facilities at key locations. Over time, consideration could be given to the purchase of a fire brigade boat suitable for emergency responses.

The benefits of an established wildland brigade include the standardization of equipment. This would build upon the availability of privately-owned pumps that could be used while that equipment was being acquired. Privately-owned pumps could continue to augment wildland brigade equipment to build up an identified inventory of available equipment. Part of the wildland brigade's ongoing work would be to periodically test any such privately-owned pumps that may have been made available for use by their owners. Once acquired, the wildland brigade's own equipment would be dedicated to fire suppression uses (including training), stored in known locations and regularly maintained.

Seven people.

Yes.

While the TPA report does provide details about potential additional services the SNWB could provide, it's important to walk before running. We feel currently the focus should be on investigating the possibility of a Wildfire Brigade level service first (as requested), and if and when that is established the feasibility of the SNWB members offering additional services can be investigated.

That will be determined by the responses that we receive from survey during this engagement process.