Nova Scotia wants to set up regional centres to help during emergencies

Nova Scotia is making sweeping changes to a bill that deals with how it responds to emergencies, including extreme weather events, with the aim of improving collaboration between municipalities and the province.

John Lohr, the minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office, tabled a suite of amendments to Bill 455 at Province House Tuesday.

The bill was introduced in the spring to establish a Department of Emergency Management and a volunteer corps called the Nova Scotia Guard.

Lohr said that following consultation with the public and stakeholders over the summer, the government came to a better understanding of "what needed to be done."

"We wanted to create a stronger regional approach," Lohr told reporters Wednesday.

Changes to the bill allow for the creation of regional emergency operations centres. Lohr said it's not yet decided how many will be created, but it will be fewer than 10. The province will pay for staff.

The centres will support emergency preparedness, and further "activate" during emergencies to work with municipalities and others on the ground.

"Our municipalities are incredibly important in terms of the [emergency] response," Lohr said.

"The first line of response is the municipalities, but we want to work more closely with them and have them work more closely with each other."

Wolfville Mayor Wendy Donovan was not aware of the amendments until contacted by CBC News and had not reviewed them, but was keen on the idea of the regional emergency operations centres.

"The more that anything is integrated, and certainly in response to emergencies, that is a good thing," she said.

"As a municipality, we are small. We can't possibly be everywhere all the time any additional help that the province gives us on anything, I always welcome."

Watch | Remnants of post-tropical storm Beryl swept through Nova Scotia in July:

Water rushes down streets and floods N.S. homes, businesses after heavy rain

2 months ago

Duration 0:57

Some areas of Digby, Annapolis, Kings and Hants counties in Nova Scotia saw severe flooding on Thursday evening after heavy rain hit the province. (Photo credit: Brian Taylor)

Donovan's community learned first hand about the need for emergency preparedness after being hit with heavy rain in July that caused flash flooding, which led to the death of a 13-year-old boy.

Shortly after the flooding, Jason Ripley, chief of the volunteer fire department in Greenwich, questioned the actions of the Kings Regional Emergency Management Office (REMO), which did not activate its emergency co-ordination centre.

He welcomed Lohr's amendments.

"There's definitely a need to ensure there's better co-ordination in the future than perhaps we've seen in the past," he said in an interview.

Ripley said the regional centres will work if there's "good communication from the top down and the bottom up."

'All about PR'

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that broadly, her party supports the bill, particularly the creation of the Emergency Management Department, but she does not like that the government made vast amendments after it had already begun movingthrough the House, without a "proper" briefing for opposition politicians or the media.

"They're not taking legislating seriously, and they're not taking governing seriously. It's all about the PR and I think people will suffer as a result," she told reporters at Province House.

Lohr said he signaled from the outset that consultation would happen after the initial introduction of the bill, with the potential for changes to follow.

"This is really part of the process," he said.