Local solutions for local problems: UN framework unnecessary
The provincial government’s new Emergency and Disaster Management Act was a hot topic at the Peace River Regional District board meeting on Thursday. Not only did the Board itself spend considerable time discussing the proposed regulations for local government contained in the Act, whose timeline it characterized as onerous and unrealistic, but several members of the public travelled to Dawson Creek to voice their concerns.
“Why do we need the UN involved with anything to do with our area,” Fort St. John resident Deborah Johnson asked the PRRD Board.
Johnson felt that the “frameworks” outlined in the Act are unnecessary to deal with local emergencies. “Haven’t we, as a community, dealt with emergencies in the past? Haven’t the farmers and the Indigenous people done a good job fighting the fires?”
“Interference from government has only added chaos and destruction,” Johnson said.
Several of the points Johnson brought up were echoed by Area Directors, especially the reluctance to throw out a plan, that although not perfect, has served the region well.
“This region is unique, other regions in this province are unique as well. Why aren’t we working with what we have and improving those instead of doing a whole new framework,” said Area B Director Jordan Kealy.
The “framework” in question, is the UN Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (https://www.undrr.org/quick/11409), which on the surface, aims to help countries prepare for and manage all manner of disasters when they occur. However, as Kealy noted, this is a broad framework which doesn’t appear to take into consideration the uniqueness of areas within the countries which signed on to it.
Johnson and the other members of the public who spoke out against the BC government’s Sendai-based proposed legislation, noted that the United Nations is an unelected foreign entity, which has no business making decisions for Canadians. The Sendai framework talks about global emergencies, such as the recent pandemic. Wildfires in British Columbia, for example, are not global crises.
The wants, needs and desires of British Columbia and the Peace Region cannot be addressed by anyone at an international level, according to resident Gina Goad. The UN and the Sendai framework has “nothing to do with the health and safety of people in this country.”
Another Fort St. John resident, Carol Kube, asked the Board for a Town Hall meeting to provide an opportunity for the public to discuss the Emergency and Disaster Management Act. She added that “the UN has been declared a terrorist organization in many countries. So why are we wanting to follow something that they’re suggesting?”
Goad urged the Board to think carefully about putting things on its agenda whose terminology states that it’s “good for us”.
“Ask us. We’ll tell you what’s good for us, because we know,” Goad said.