The NDP struggle with calling an emergency an emergency
As roaring wildfires crested the hills above Kelowna on Friday afternoon, B.C.’s Emergency Minister was asked whether the province would declare a state of emergency.“So far, we have the tools that we need,” said Bowinn Ma, during a 1 p.m. media briefing at the Vancouver cabinet offices.
“But the tools that we need right now are available to us through the Wildfire Act, and the Wildfire Act allows us to spend whatever it takes, to acquire resources, to deploy resources in order to fight wildfires.” “These tools are necessary to support comms, to support families, and support those brave frontline workers battling the fires in our forests and communities.”“This declaration gives the province extraordinary powers to keep people, communities and first responders safe,” she said.
If that’s true, the advice of her experts doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. It has left the public, justifiably, confused over what has become an annual exercise in hair-splitting over declaring states of emergencies when it is clear to an entire province that an emergency is already underway. A state of emergency does not offer any more immediate front-line firefighting services, on that Ma is correct. Nor does it authorize the province to spend any more money on firefighting.
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