December 10, 2024 - Minutes

Date:

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Place:

Anderson Room
Richmond City Hall

Present:

Councillor Alexa Loo, Chair
Councillor Andy Hobbs
Councillor Laura Gillanders
Councillor Kash Heed
Councillor Bill McNulty

Also Present:

Councillor Chak Au

Councillor Carol Day (entered the meeting at 4:11 p.m.)

Councillor Michael Wolfe

Call to Order:

The Chair called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.

MINUTES

It was moved and seconded

That the minutes of the meeting of the Community Safety Committee held on November 13, 2024, be adopted.

CARRIED

PRESENTATION

1.

Fire Chief Jim Wishlove, Richmond Fire Rescue, and Brennan MacLachlan, Program Manager, Emergency Planning provided a presentation on the status of Emergency Preparedness and Management in Richmond (Copy on-file, City Clerk’s Office) highlighting that: 

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The Emergency and Disaster Management Act is the Provincial legislation that mandates each local authority to have an Emergency Management Organization (EMO);

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Emergency Programs department represents the subject matter experts to ensure that the strategic direction stipulated by the EMO is carried out;

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There are four risk-based functions of Emergency Management, Prevention and Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery;

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Emergency Programs department, write and implement, or support the implementation of the plans and activities to enable the four functions;

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Some initiatives that were undertaken by Emergency Programs since 2021 include: (i) transition of public education to community engagement, (ii) developed a heat response plan, (iii) emergency management staff training program for front line staff to Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) staff, (iii) leveraging grant funding for providing supplies to the EOC, (iv) conducting over 12 public engagement events reaching approximately 5860 people, and streamlining the sign up process for the emergency notification system, and (v) coordinating support for neighboring municipalities;

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EOC serves as the coordination center for analysing the situation, providing situation reports, developing response plans, documenting the rationale for decisions, tracking financial expenditures, and planning for the recovery;

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Many key partners are engaged with on a routine basis through response coordination, exercises, and professional organizations;

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Primary EOC is located in City Hall and a backup EOC is located at Cambie Fire Hall 3;

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The Emergency Support Services (ESS) program provides up to 72 hours of funding support for food, clothing, and lodging for displaced community members and is delivered by the City on behalf of the Provincial government;

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ESS has established and maintained a two hour service delivery benchmark starting from notification to delivery of services;

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Emergency Preparedness participates and conducts regular exercises that can take the form of table top ‘discussion’ based exercises most often employed during plan review and validation processes, activation exercises that involve full or partial EOC activations, and full scale exercises that involve response agencies conducting live drills; and

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Public sign up for the Richmond.ca/alert can be done through the MyRichmond web portal or residents can reach out to Emergency Programs staff for assistance signing up. This allows staff to communicate directly with members of the public during an event. The City of Richmond and Richmond Fire Rescue’s (RFR) websites both have an Emergency Programs webpage that will give residents information on how to prepare for an emergency.

Councillor Carol Day entered the meeting (4:11 p.m.).

Discussion ensued with respect to (i) conducting large scale exercises,
(ii) home checklists for creating a 72 hour emergency kit and the provision of prepackaged kits available during an emergency, (iii) translation of Emergency Programs information into Cantonese and Punjabi languages, (iv) current inventory of a 10 year food supply, (v) alerts being specific and directive as to what is happening, and direction for what needs to be done, (vi) food, water and emergency kits being available for on-duty staff to operate up to two weeks, and (vii) best before dates for supplies and food being regularly reviewed.

In response to a query from Committee, Chief Wishlove advised that in an emergency situation, the first 72 hours are critical for emergency services to assess viable assets for sheltering. As such, it is important that the public be independently prepared to get through the first 72 hours of an emergency.

Committee provided direction to staff to provide a memorandum on the chain of command in case of an emergency and that the Emergency Preparedness presentation be presented to Council.

COMMUNITY SAFETY DIVISION

2.

Community Bylaws Monthly Activity Report – October 2024

(File Ref. No. 12-8375-02) (REDMS No. 7858227)

Discussion ensued regarding soil activity and the quantitative and qualitative downward trend of calls for service with respect to homelessness.

It was moved and seconded

That the staff report titled “Community Bylaws Monthly Activity Report – October 2024”, dated November 15, 2024, from the Director, Community Bylaws & Licencing, be received for information.

CARRIED

3.

Business Licence Activity Report – Third Quarter 2024

(File Ref. No. 12-8375-02) (REDMS No. 7834273)

It was moved and seconded

That the staff report titled “Business Licence Activity Report – Third Quarter 2024”, dated October 18, 2024, from the Director, Community Bylaws & Licencing, be received for information.

CARRIED

4.

Richmond Fire-Rescue Monthly Activity Report – October 2024

(File Ref. No. 09-5140-01/) (REDMS No. 7855584)

It was moved and seconded

That the staff report titled “Richmond Fire-Rescue Monthly Activity Report – October 2024”, dated November 6, 2024, from the Fire Chief, be received for information.

CARRIED

5.

FIRE CHIEF BRIEFING
(Verbal Report)

Items for discussion: None

6.

RCMP Monthly Activity Report – October 2024

(File Ref. No. 09-5000-01) (REDMS No. 7841582)

Discussion ensued with respect to mental health and sexual assault related incidents.

It was moved and seconded

That the report titled “RCMP Monthly Activity Report – October 2024”, dated November 15, 2024, from the Officer in Charge, be received for information.

CARRIED

Councillor Andy Hobbs left the meeting (5:01 p.m.) and did not return.

7.

RCMP/OIC BRIEFING
(Verbal Report)

Items for discussion: None

8.

MANAGER’S REPORT

None.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved and seconded

That the meeting adjourn (5:05 p.m.).

CARRIED

Certified a true and correct copy of the Minutes of the meeting of the Community Safety Committee of the Council of the City of Richmond held on Tuesday, December 10, 2024.

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Councillor Alexa Loo
Chair

Raman Grewal
Legislative Services Associate