Community Conversation - Bush Creek East Wildfire

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) wants to hear from community members about their experiences during the Bush Creek East Wildfire. We are hosting a series of community conversations, in-person and online, to listen to our community and share information.

The in-person and online events will be facilitated by an independent consulting company, Monogram Communications. This group will collect and communicate information and report to the Board in a publicly available What We Heard report.

Now that the Community Conversation events are complete, what's next?

The What We Heard report developed by Monogram Communications is now publicly available.

We thank all those who participated and shares their stories, ideas and suggestions for improvement.

The report will be presented to CSRD Directors at the April 18 Regular Board meeting for review and discussion. For more details, see the project update tab on the right side of this page.

Once reviewed, the CSRD will be working towards implementing recommendations for improvement, both in the short-and long-term.

Background for the Community Conversations

Why is this happening now?

We are undertaking this exercise now so that we can implement some, but likely not all, suggestions for improvement for the 2024 fire season. Some changes might be easy to put in place, others might take longer.

The CSRD is committed to continuous improvement and this feedback is a very important piece of doing that.

These conversations can help the CSRD team to:
● Learn how people received information during the wildfire.
● Share information about the role of CSRD during an emergency.
● Hear your feedback on how things were managed.
● Gather information to improve the CSRD’s preparedness for future incidents.
● Offer resources including FireSmart tips and personal preparedness tools.

We recognize that there are valid community concerns regarding rebuilding, environmental damage and geotechnical hazards. These concerns are not the focus of this engagement process, which is designed to look back at last year's wildfire experience. Moving forward, some of these ongoing issues will be addressed later on by the CSRD or other agencies.

How can I be involved?

Attend one of our session to share your thoughts.

For those who might have missed it, here’s a video of the presentation on March 14, 2024.