City says province left it out in the cold during winter weather emergency

Earlier this month, the City of Victoria faced a significant test of its emergency response capabilities when a prolonged cold snap brought temperatures in the region to sub-zero levels for 12 consecutive days.

The extended period of frigid weather pushed the city's shelter system and its staffing resources beyond their limits and forced the closure of its designated emergency operating centre on Cook Street. It also left city officials reviewing response tactics to extreme weather events and how they define emergencies as they relate to the city’s unhoused residents.

“There can be no more clear emergency than below-zero weather for extended periods of time that threaten the lives of persons without shelter,” said Victoria’s mayor, Marianne Alto, in a detailed letter sent last week to Kelly Greene, the provincial emergency management minister.

The missive was written following what the mayor said were repeated requests for staffing help to meet the emergency. The requests were denied.

The cold snap pushed shelter and EOC staff beyond its limits

From Feb. 3 to Feb. 15, Victoria’s shelter capacity was overwhelmed as temperatures plunged below zero (temps fell as low as -6 for three of those days), forcing the city to tap into emergency protocols typically designed for more short-term crises, such as fires, flooding, and electrical outages.

The province’s Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMBC) Regulation 5.11 allows local authorities to activate an Emergency Operating Centre (EOCs)—which in this case, was virtual—-and to request additional resources and personnel from outside their jurisdiction when facing emergencies.

Provincial EOC operational guidelines suggest criteria for activating an EOC include: a significant number of people at risk; response co-ordination required due to a large or widespread event, resource co-ordination required because of limited local resources; and a significant need for outside resources.

During the cold snap, the Victoria Fire Department (VFD) asked for the Cook St. Village Activity Centre to become a warming centre.

The Extreme Weather Response (EWR) program, which typically funds community-based services to provide additional emergency shelter spaces during periods of severe winter weather, was activated during that period. However, the sheer length of the cold snap left the city grappling with a shortage of resources to keep people warm and off the streets.

Request denied. Twice

“It wasn’t the funds, said the mayor, "it was the human [staffing] resources.”

Two separate application requests to the ministry for staffing assistance from the City of Victoria were rejected, she said.

“My perspective,” said the mayor in an interview with Capital Daily, “was that what we asked for was completely allowable under the legislation.”

The province’s EMBC regulations say that if an EOC identifies a need for additional competent staff from outside its jurisdiction, it  can ask for support from the ministry through a resource request.

On Feb. 6, Tanya Seal-Jones, the city’s emergency program co-ordinator, submitted a request to the ministry for additional personnel and transportation to keep the city's emergency hub on Cook open.

The request was denied. A second request, filed four days later also was refused.

As part of its emergency management protocols, the VFD contacted Jenny Majzoub, the executive director at the Cook St Village Activity Centre to ask for her help to shelter unhoused people and get them out of the cold.

Thirty people showed up.

“We were never going to say ‘No,’” Majzoub said.

The centre already works closely with the city’s emergency management team. Teal Jones’s team offers safety and emergency preparedness workshops there and the province has in the past provided grants for heating and cooling improvements in the building that predominantly serves seniors living in the Cook Street Village.

Cook Street has opened its doors as a cooling centre during past extreme heat events  But this time it was the cold, and during the week of Feb. 3 to Feb. 10, the gymnasium at the centre was used as a warming shelter during overnight hours, and operated from 8:30 pm until seven each morning.

Staff worked long hours, supplying their “guests,” as Majzoub said, with warm drinks and snacks throughout the night and then breakfast the following morning. The overnighters got bag lunches and snacks to eat during the day.

The rejections from the province left the city and centre staff scrambling. “By the time we got to Day 10, we had exhausted all of our resources,” said Alto.

Unable to meet staffing demands, the activity centre had to close its doors to shelter guests before the cold snap ended.

“It was a very emotional period of time,” Majzoub told Capital Daily. “Some people had no belongings with them at all. I wish we could have done more.”

Rules don't apply to warming centres

The provincial government’s Emergency and Disaster Management Act (EDMA) provides guidelines for activating EOCs and securing resources. However, the minister said in an interview with CHEK News, the provincial guidelines on resourcing EOCs do not currently extend to staffing warming centres.

This distinction became a point of contention for the mayor who argued that the long cold spell clearly met the definition of an emergency and required a co-ordinated response that included staffing.

Alto said the ministry advised the city instead to “reach out to non-profit organizations” (Our Place Society, Salvation Army, PHS Community Services, Victoria Cool Aid Society, Beacon Community Association, Victoria Native Friendship Centre, SOLID Outreach Society, Pacifica Housing, and Aboriginal Coalition), and to “enter into agreements with these groups to organize the appropriate staffing levels and then submit to Emergency Activation Fund for reimbursement for eligible costs.”

But those places were already full. Alto reached out to other municipalities for surge support but they had none to offer.

Alto says standards need to be updated

In an interview with Capital Daily on Wednesday, Alto suggested the definitions of warming standards and emergencies need to change.

“Perhaps it's time for us to have a look at what can be included within the existing legislature that needs to be amended,” she said.

In particular, Alto argued that the legislation should acknowledge the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and their growing impact on communities like Victoria.

The mayor stressed that emergencies should be defined by what is unusual for a particular region. While the cold snap wasn’t severe—the coldest day in 2022 came in at -12.4 C and in 2021, at -11.8 C—it provided a reminder of the urgency of addressing the city's homelessness crisis in the face of changing climate conditions and extreme weather events.

“It’s my position that I think it needs to be updated to acknowledge the changing nature of emergencies and climate,” Alto said.

The mayor pointed to gaps in the system leading to lags when mobilizing emergency resources.

“When cities are involved, it’s intended to be short-term. But when those resources are exhausted, that’s when the Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMC) protocols should kick in,” she said.

One positive the mayor said she came out with was the minister’s efforts to hear her concerns over the phone on the same busy day of the throne speech.

“That we're continuing to talk is really important,” Alto said. “Right now, we're lucky it's warmer, but there will be winter again at some point so we need to continue to have this conversation.”