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UNA seeks consultants to take them seriously

Posted By Neal Yonson On October 23, 2012 @ 2:43 pm In News | Comments Disabled

The UNA recently hired a consulting firm, Emergency Response Management Consultants, “to better
understand the role of UNA in an emergency or disaster event impacting the area.” And the report came back [1] with the opinion that they have no significant role, coming to the correct conclusion that the UNA is not a government, they just pretend to be.

    As per the definition in the Emergency Program Act, Part 1 – Definitions and Application, the UNA does not meet the criteria of a municipality, electoral area, nor a national park. Based on this finding, UNA is not required to develop an emergency plan.

In order to batter the UNA’s ego just a little bit more, guess who does hold jurisdiction for emergency preparedness?

    UNA falls under the jurisdiction of the Metro Vancouver area. Metro Vancouver is the local authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) for the area. As the local authority, Metro Vancouver has the responsibility “for the direction and control of the local authority’s emergency response…” as per the Emergency Program Act. Metro Vancouver provides fire, police, and ambulance services to support any incident occurring at housing developments operated through UNA.

It was pointed out that the UNA can still make emergency preparedness plans in order to supplement Metro Vancouver’s plans and to make themselves feel better. However, Metro Vancouver is top dog on this file and anything the UNA comes up with should support, not supplant Metro Vancouver’s plans.

The reason the UNA would commission a consultant’s report like this is not to actually ask for a neutral opinion on what their role should be in emergency preparedness. It’s to have a third party validate their already-held view that the UNA has jurisdiction over emergency preparedness in their Neighbourhoods. The UNA’s plan seems to be that if they occupy their current role for long enough, they’ll be able to claim squatter’s rights on UBC’s vacant municipal governance at some point in the future. To campus denizens not in the Neighbourhoods, they may as well just be a group of people standing on the top of Save-On Foods screaming “Respect my authoritah!”


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[1] report came back: http://ubcinsiders.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/UNA-Emergency-Preparedness.pdf

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