There's a call for the province to step in and establish guidelines for a unified response to emergencies such as a tsunami threat.
Capital Regional District manager of protective services Shawn Carby says municipalities manage their own individual responses, which is why it was so varied yesterday after a 7.9 earthquake in Alaska triggered a tsunami warning for B.C.’s coast.
For instance, Carby says just before 3am the CRD determined the threat was minimal so they decided not to trigger their emergency response. But shortly afterwards, several municipalities did activate their protocols.
"The idea here is to look at this and see how we as a province, we as local government, can work together to try and find a singular approach up and down the coast so we don't have this difference in approach," says Carby.
The CRD is responsible for the emergency response in the three electoral areas, including the Juan de Fuca region.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins expressed a similar sentiment regarding the difference between her municipality's response and CFB Esquimalt. The township opened its rec centre as a reception area and started door knocking in areas near the shore. But the navy base determined they didn't need to sound their alarm, confusing some residents.
In a statement, the navy tells us "in close consultation with Emergency Management BC along with data gathered from other sources such as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it was assessed that the threat to Victoria was not imminent and that continued monitoring of effects farther north up the coast would give us ample time to sound the alarm if necessary."
Desjardins says she wants to work on better coordination with the Department of National Defense.