Emergency response plans and roles

On this page:

• Producers
• Producer and agriculture associations
• Local authorities
• Indigenous and First Nation communities
• Provincial government
• Federal government

Producers

During an emergency, producers play an important response role. It is the producer’s responsibility to safeguard their business or livestock. Producers can take steps to remain informed about an emergency and make decisions about their operations.

• Learn about what happens during an evacuation
• Be aware of evacuation alerts and orders. Follow Emergency Info BC or @EmergencyInfoBC (Twitter) to get notifications for Evacuation Alerts and Evacuation Orders issued by local authorities, as well as other information you may need to respond and recover from emergencies.
• Put your preparedness plan into action
• Be prepared to relocate your livestock

Producer and agriculture associations

Agricultural producer associations can be an important resource for emergency management for their members. Support that associations provide may include:

• Distributing emergency related information during an incident
• Representing their sector in an Emergency Operations Centre as subject matter experts
• Developing prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery tools for their members

Local authorities

Local authorities in British Columbia include municipalities and regional districts. Every local authority is required under Section 6 of the Emergency Program Act (EPA) to develop, test, and implement local emergency plans for response to emergencies within their jurisdiction. Local authorities are also required to establish and maintain emergency management organizations to develop and implement preparedness, response and recovery measures.  In order to assist Local Authorities with planning for the agricultural aspects of emergencies, the ministry has developed the following template for their use:

• Local Authority Emergency Plans – Agriculture Appendix Template (PDF, 800 KB) 

Indigenous and First Nation communities

Indigenous and First Nation governments are the first line of response in the event of an emergency on a reserve.  Indigenous and First Nations governments are responsible for creating and implementing emergency management plans to prepare their communities to cope with an emergency. The provincial and federal governments provide support to First Nations communities under various agreements to ensure First Nations reserve communities in the province receive emergency management support comparable to that which is provided to Local Authorities. In order to assist Indigenous and First Nations Communities with planning for the agricultural aspects of emergencies, the ministry has developed the following template for their use:

• Emergency Guide to Support Indigenous Farms & Ranches (PDF, 2 MB)

General information about emergency preparedness, response and recovery is available through EMBC:

• EMBC First Nations Toolkit

Provincial government

The ministry has developed and maintains an overarching emergency management plan that outlines how the ministry will deliver on its responsibilities for emergency management in the province.

Animal disease

In partnership with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (the lead federal agency for foreign animal disease incidents) and with the support of several other key provincial ministries, the ministry has developed and maintains the B.C. Foreign Animal Disease Emergency Support Plan (FADES) that guides the response to FAD incidents in the province.

• 2019 B.C. FADES Plan (PDF, 6 MB)
• 2019 B.C. FADES Annexes (PDF, 1.8 MB)

Other emergencies

EMCR is the designated provincial agency responsible for the overall coordination of emergency management in the province. Additional information on provincial emergency response planning can be found on the Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR) website.

• British Columbia Flood Response Plan (PDF, 792 KB)

Federal government

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) lead the response for certain types of emergencies impacting agriculture, such as the response to specific diseases or pests, and national or regional scale events.  These agencies may also provide support for other types of emergencies impacting the agricultural sector such as localized extreme weather events.  These agencies also address issues such as market access and impacts to the agricultural sector including recovery from emergency events.  More information can be found on their emergency management websites:

• AAFC Agriculture Emergency Management
• AAFC Emergency Management Framework for Agriculture in Canada
• CFIA Animal Diseases
• CFIA Audit Report of Emergency Management