FSSS Update for Emergency Preparedness Week May 6-12th

May 7, 2007 - Help us reach as many people as possible by forwarding this message on to your personal network of relatives, neighbours, colleagues and friends. This page is also available on the Families for School Seismic Safety website.

Letters

A big thanks again to all of you who took the time to send letters to public officials - your letters do make an impact! We appreciate individual politicians from all levels of government, from across the political spectrum, who have demonstrated their personal support for this issue. We continue to hope that our political representatives at all levels can find ways to work together to ensure that the Premier’s commitment is met.

BIG ONE Earthquake Drill - Vancouver, Thursday May 10th 2 pm

At 2 p.m. on May 10th , over 57,000 children and 3,200 staff at all public schools in Vancouver will conduct earthquake drills. Many other schools in B.C. will be doing the same this week. Your children will be coming home thinking about this, and might ask some questions, so it’s a good time for parents and families to think and prepare too.

Vancouver School Board Facilities Review

The Vancouver School Board has embarked on a facilities review and has invited students, parents, staff and the public to come to open house meetings being held this week to provide their ideas to help the school board make decisions that “best reflect the educational needs and values of Vancouver students and families.”

  1. Tuesday, May 8, 6:30 to 8:30 pm
    Vancouver Technical Secondary School cafeteria
    2600 E. Broadway

  2. Wednesday, May 9, 6:30 to 8:30 pm
    Tupper Secondary School cafeteria
    419 E. 24th Ave.

  3. Thursday, May 10, 6:30 to 8:30 pm
    Magee Secondary School atrium
    6360 Maple St.

There are many factors which need to be taken into account in making decisions to about how best to meet the long term educational infrastructure needs of any district. The focus of this planning effort must be to create better educational facilities in every sense – including that they be structurally sound.

We hope parents concerned about school seismic safety, along with other issues facing our school systems, will actively participate in these open house meetings.

Infrastructure Spending Separate

It is important to note that infrastructure funding is a separate budget from the rest of education. A summary of capital spending on projects, maintenance, and seismic upgrades for the past 27 years shows the average annual infrastructure spending for each decade:

27 Years of capital spending at a glance:

(all figures in millions of dollars)

Years Total Average
1980-1990 1,190.0 119.0
1990-2000 4,257.6 425.8
2000-2007 1,761.5 251.6
27 Years $7,209.1 $267.0

(Average capital spending over 27 years is $267 million)

Past 3 years of capital spending by category:

Year Projects Maintenance Seismic Total
2004-2005 114.3 110 11 235.3
2005-2006 92.3 110 8 210.3
2006-2007 96.3 110 70 276.3
Total $302.90 $330 $89 $721.9

(Average capital spending over the past three years is $240.6 million)

Breaking out the capital spending numbers for the past three years shows that current spending is roughly comparable with the 27-year average of $240 million per year. This raises questions for our government that parents want answered:

  1. In 2004 Premier Campbell made a commitment to spend $1.5 billion on school seismic building upgrades and replacements, yet the track record over the past three years shows little by way of funding for new seismic projects, and overall capital funding is in fact lower than the historical norm. How can this be?

  2. When adjusted for inflation the spending gap between what is needed today and what was spent in years past only widens further. How will the school system carry on both regular operations as well as upgrade and replace at-risk schools, with even less in capital funds than were budgeted in the past primarily for regular operations alone?

  3. The Premier’s 2004 15-year, $1.5 billion commitment to school seismic safety represents a $100 million dollar per year capital spending increase which is well within historical education spending norms. But is $1.5 billion enough, given B.C.'s inflated cost of construction? Is our government properly budgeting for this enormous and important challenge? And is this budgetary commitment one which parents can depend on?

Whatever the true cost of seismic upgrades turns out to be, other jurisdictions with the same seismic safety challenges have proven that a real commitment and planned approach to reach the end-goal results in success. Seattle, which had a problem of similar magnitude as ours, received approval from their citizens to spend $1 billion U.S. on school infrastructure and seismic safety. Thanks to realistic funding, project management, and a long term vision and plan, Seattle will complete their school seismic upgrades by the year 2010.

British Columbia in stark contrast has been talking about the issue for years, without much by way of concrete success. At the current pace of action, by 2010 our government will have barely even begun addressing the seismic safety problems currently found at over three hundred schools province-wide.

Given this reality, should parents have any confidence in the commitments made by the provincial government on this issue?

May 6-12: Emergency Preparedness Week in Canada

While looking at the big picture of school seismic safety is important, lets not forget that we owe it to our families and communities to ensure that we are all personally prepared in the event of an earthquake or other emergency or disaster.

First, Be Personally Prepared

Is your family prepared? Emergency relief experts recommend that people and families be prepared to cope on their own for at least 72 hours - three days - on their own. Learn how you and your family can get prepared now to be ready to cope with emergencies by taking simple, doable, actions. Attend one of these free sessions (to register, call the community centre):

... or, check the Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program for registration information for other course dates.

For information on EP Week activities in other communities, visit this listing on the Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) website. You may also wish to review a guide produced by PEP: Prepare now for an earthquake in B.C.

For Home and Office and In-Between - Be Ready

Personal or family emergency supplies should be available to you at home, at work, and in your car. Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services has a useful home emergency kit checklist. At minimum be sure that you have the following essentials in sufficient quantities to last 72 hours but preferably an entire week:

All family members regardless of age must a) know who their out of area contact person is and b) know the location of a pre-arranged family meeting place.

Emergency Preparedness Ideas for PACs and Parents

Here are some ideas already being put into action by some parents and PACs:

Learn more about Residential and School Earthquake Hazard

Dr. Carlos Ventura, Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of UBC's Earthquake Engineering Research Facility, will present:

Learning from Earthquakes to Prepare for Earthquakes
Monday May 28, 7 pm
Kits Community Centre (604) 257-6976

Dr. Ventura's presentation will include information on the safety of school and residential building construction in B.C., and safety mitigation measures that can be taken before disaster strikes. (Please call the community centre to register for this free seminar)

Families for School Seismic Safety
www.fsssbc.org - Stay informed!
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