The B.C. government should create a centralized hub of event planning resources and offer more financial support for event security, according to a new report.
Those are among the six recommendations put forward by former B.C. Supreme Court chief justice Christopher Hinkson, who the province tapped to probe public event safety in the wake of a deadly vehicle ramming attack at the Vancouver Lapu Lapu Day festival this spring
B.C. Premier David Eby commissioned the report to help guide event organizers to “maximize safety” after 11 people were killed and dozens of others were hurt as a vehicle raced down a street lined with food trucks as the April 26 festival was wrapping up.
The commission gathered input from municipalities and regional districts, Indigenous communities, police and event organizers, and revealed “strengths and vulnerabilities.”
While some communities have built strong relationships between governments, first responders and organizers, the report concludes, smaller and under-resourced jurisdictions “face persistent challenges –such as limited staff capacity, rising costs for equipment and security, unclear lines of responsibility, and difficulty navigating overlapping jurisdictions or fragmented guidance.”
Get breaking National news
It also found that many event organizers rely on volunteers with little formal training for funding.
The report noted significant concerns about vehicle ramming attacks and highlighted the importance of barriers, bollards and barricades to secure public spaces during events.
“One consistent theme from the Commission’s consultations with expert event planners and safety professionals is that vehicles and pedestrians should not mix, and every effort must be made to avoid moving traffic in areas where pedestrians are located,” it states.
The report recommends that all events undergo a “thoughtful” and “structured” risk assessment appropriate to their size that considers “activities, and potential hazards, including risks to specific groups and environmental factors.”
It further calls on the province to create a centralized provincial event hub for information and advice for organizers, noting that many don’t have access to the resources or best practices for safety planning.
It also calls on the province to look at increasing grants or funding to help offset event security costs, noting that rising costs are “one of the most significant barriers” to hosting community events, and threaten their viability altogether for smaller organizers.
That could include cost-sharing programs for infrastructure like fencing and barricades and emergency services. It also calls on the province to encourage neighbouring jurisdictions to share resources with each other.
The province should also seek to address unclear lines of responsibility and difficulty navigating overlapping jurisdictions or fragmented guidance in event planning, with clear criteria defining the roles and responsibilities for organizers, officials and emergency response.
And it calls on the province to encourage local jurisdictions and event organizers to both engage in regular tabletop simulations with emergency services and to encourage the routine use of after-action reports to evaluate safety outcomes after events.
“Every single event’s different, and we can’t have one solution — I mean some events might need extensive security measures, and some might not, and so those are the things we have to draw a balance,” said Terry Yung, minister of state for community safety.
“So we’re not going to be cost-prohibitive so people will be discouraged (from) organizing public events due to cost, but having said that, to make sure there’s adequate planning and assessment in place prior to the event.”
The report includes two new tools that event organizers can begin using immediately, including an event safety plan template and a risk assessment framework.
The government says it is now working through the rest of the recommendations and how best to act on them.
Comments