1 % % 53 47 MEN WOMEN 3500 kms Travelled to 24 Meetings 50 hours listening to residents 769 RESIDENTS ATTENDED MEETINGS FACEBOOK LIVE VIEWS 1984 SURVEYED AGE 684 1209 AVERAGE SURVEY RESPONSES 54 ENGAGED ON FACEBOOK Foreword Our deepest thanks to the people of the Cariboo and Chilcotin. We quickly moved from emergency operations, to planning and completing an extensive consultation process. With all of your challenges you came forward, despite weather not always cooperating, sometimes traveling hours to participate. You shared your thoughts honestly and with respect, even when it wasn’t easy. We always felt well taken care of, with smiling faces at every host venue. Often you went above and beyond by supplying everything from baked goods to full meals. You understood when we were challenged by long travel days, and made us feel at home at various accommodations. Our deepest thanks for your help in sharing your stories and experiences, and how future emergencies can be improved. Thanks to Our Team We planned quickly, and got on the road to listen. Two of our team members had just begun their jobs days earlier. Roads were not friendly at times, from black ice to snow, fog to pitch black rain. We came across a serious collision near Tatla Lake early on our longest day of meetings and travel. We helped as best we could and continued on. The next day on the road, one of our team survived a deer collision. I cannot thank you enough. You stepped outside your job and did whatever we asked of you. To our every representative from every organization, thank you! You were incredible. - Tim Butterfly Effect Communications Kendra Stoner, Communications Associate - Scheduler Tim Conrad, APR, Consultant - Project Lead, Facilitator and Video Script and Video Script Ellen MacCormac - Graphic Design Lloyd Piehl, Communications Associate - A/V and Setup Matt Haughn - Video Editing and Voiceover RCMP Cariboo Regional District • Constable Zack Plensky, Anahim Lake • John MacLean, CAO • Staff Sgt. Svend Nielsen, 100 Mile House • Janis Bell, CAO (retired) Province of British Columbia • Alice Johnston, Corporate Officer Wildfire Service • Lore Schick, Deputy Corporate Officer • Krista Dunleavey, Manager, Cariboo Fire Centre • Darron Campbell, Manager of Community Services Rural Development, Lands and Innovation Division, • Larry Loveng, Manager of Procurement Ministry of Forestry, Lands, Natural Resource • Emily Epp, Communications Manager Operations and Rural Development - Community • Stephanie Masun, Recovery Manager Wildfire Recovery Branch • Todd Conway, Deputy Manager of Development • Emily Colombo, Acting Manager Services and Chief Building Official • Cordelia Tyron, Community Wildfire Recovery Officer • Cathy Norman, Communications Ministry of Agriculture - Business Risk Management District of 100 Mile House • Nicole Pressey, Regional Agrologist • Roy Scott, CAO • Doug Pepper, Program Representative • M.J. Cousins, Recovery Coordinator • Chad Fofonoff, Program Representative • Joanne Doddridge, Economic and Community Canadian Red Cross Development Officer • Jon Jackson, Operations Manager City of Williams Lake • Sarina MacDonell, Indigenous Community Relations • Leah Hartley, Director of Development Services Officer City of Quesnel • Tammy Germain, Case Worker Supervisors • Garry Horley, Rural Economic Recovery Coordinator • Lisa Hanssen • Shannon Bell, Community Liaison • Derek Harvey • Tracy Bond, Urban Recovery Coordinator • Sheena Wory • Erin Robinson, Wildfire Recovery Coordinator Community Futures • Charlene Lawrence, Wildfire Recovery Administrator • Karen Eden 4 Started in 2015, Butterfly Effect has worked in four provinces and territories, providing public relations, public consultations, crisis communications, social media, and marketing services with a focus on rep- utation management. Our goal is to develop strong communities through strategies to engage, educate and expand. Consultant Author, Analysis, and Graphic Layout: Tim Conrad, APR “’Impossible’ is not a word in Tim’s dictionary”. If you’re looking for lollipops and rainbows, you won’t find them with Tim. With a nearly unreal background including disaster communications, public consultations, and marketing small businesses, Tim knows his way through hard work and ugly situations. When discovering and exploring where your organization has issues, you will get honesty from Tim, or what he calls “hard truths”. His strategic advice and solutions will improve your reputation. His experience has developed him into a reputable “fixer” who can enter an organization in crisis and leave it in a strong position for continued growth. With experience working across Canada’s provinces and territories, he’s developed into one of Canada’s leading rural communicators and marketers, having worked in multiple markets with populations under 500,000. His work has gained national attention throughout his career, including appearances on national broadcasts on all three major television networks multiple times. He’s known for engaging stage presentations about everything from recycling to media relations, social media to mass communications and entrepreneurship. You’ll get more than pretty imagery, learning useful skills from a peer- accredited national public relations professional. Tim is a caring futurist, who believes strongly in high ethics when practicing communications and marketing. An entrepreneur since he was 12 years old, he is an innovator and leader within the national public relations community, where he serves as Presiding Chair of Professional Development. Contributors: Kendra Stoner - Research and Writing Ellen MacCormac - Graphic Design, Editing Traci Langille - Transcription APR DESIGNATION: Accreditation is a voluntary certification program for public relations professionals that is administered by the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) and currently, it is Canada’s only public relations and communications accreditation program. It identifies practitioners who have depth of experience, competence, and ethics in the professional practice of public relations. The program involves a rigorous evaluation of the skills and competencies needed to practice public relations at a senior executive level and establishes standards for professional practice. It measures experience and strategic thinking. An APR has also demonstrated an understanding of the ethical practice of public relations and comprehension of the standards enshrined in the CPRS Code of Professional Standards. 5 Contents 4 Foreword 5 Consultant 8 Setting the Stage 10 Context: Wildfire Reports & Other Reports 12 Executive Summary 16 Goals and Objectives 16 Methodology 18 Questions We Asked 21 What We Heard 27 Historical Impacts on Communications 30 Recommendations COMMUNICATIONS 30 EMERGENCY OPERATIONS 39 PREVENTION 42 WILDFIRE FIGHTING 43 RECOVERY 44 A visual representation of every topic discussed during consultation meetings. 6 Top: Aerial photo of the Plateau Fire showing Rank 6 fire across large area. (CRD Communications) Bottom left: Before, Soda Creek Road looking west as White Lake fire approached. (Shawn Dennis) Right: After, Rank 5 fire (Butterfly Effect) 7 Setting the Stage Global Wildfires - Hotter, Faster, More Often While wildfires are a natural event, they have become more intense, and particularly more invasive on urban interfaces - where people live - over the last 20 years. The result is impacting urban areas with greater strength. The Siberian Taiga fires of 2003 (nearly equal latitude to the CRD) are thought to be a trend-setter. With 55 million acres burnt across the Russian Federation that year1, the Taiga fires released massive amounts of carbon, and environmental studies continue to show damage to the ozone layer as a result. In addition, their coniferous forests - which have experienced years of large and intense wildfires - are not regenerating as they have in the past, allowing deciduous forests to dominate. This has resulted in the conifers not holding high levels of moisture at ground level, therefore increasing the chances and intensity of wildfires when combined with higher temperatures and continued drought. Seven years later, wildfires in Russia caused an estimated$ 15 billion in damages, destroying over 3,000 structures and killing 54 people as they burned from July to September. It was the result of the hottest summer ever recorded, and was quickly eclipsed by wildfires in 2012, despite an estimated 56,000 deaths due to heat and smog in 2010.2 In between, the Black Christmas bush fires in New South Wales, Australia, were the longest continuous bush fires in the region’s history when they occurred in 2001-02, destroying 753,000 hectares and over 540 structures. The year began the worst drought in 100 years, and was classified as a one in 1,000 year event, finally breaking eight years later due to La Nina which led to the second-wettest year ever recorded.3 Wildfires in the West While many think first of the 2015 Slave Lake and 2017 Fort McMurray wildfires, they have been preceded by many others. Most notable was the Richardson Backcountry fire in 2011, north of Fort McMurray. At 700,000 hectares, it was the largest fire in Alberta in 60 years.4 Slave Lake Fire - 4,700 hectares, 1 life lost, 433 structures destroyed, $750 million cost5 Fort McMurray Fire - 589,000 hectares, 2 lives lost, 2,400 structures lost, $9.9 billion cost6 Climate change, lack of precipitation, stronger winds and a build-up of fuels set the stage for the 2017 wildfires, and future and past fires in western