British Columbia is finally expanding the Alert Ready system to include notifications about floods and wildfires.

Public Safety Minister, Mike Farnworth, made that announcement Tuesday morning, noting the system has been updated to include floods and, as of June, it will start to notify people about wildfires.

“It is part of a number of tools that that we will have to be able to alert people to events that are happening,” Farnworth said.

Previously, the Alert Ready system in B.C. was only used for tsunamis, civil emergencies, and Amber Alerts.

“It is very much intended to warn of imminent threat or imminent danger. So it will be very much that local government, that local First Nation that makes that request,” Farnworth added.

“That being said, the province will also have the ability, if necessary, if we become aware of situation to be able to override and to put out an alert.”

Asked about using the Alert Ready system for extreme heat warnings, Farnworth says the government is still working to figure that out.

“The work in terms of heat warnings, right now there is work that is underway with the Ministry of Health on what the parameters should be in terms of a heat warning and how it should be operated, so that is something that is coming,” he said.

“We are working closely with the Ministry of Health on exactly how that will take place.”

The B.C. government came under fire for not using the Alert Ready system to warn people of high temperatures during the so-called heat dome at the end of June which killed around 600 people across the province.

Farnworth says there will be a test of the Alert Ready system at 1:55 p.m. Wednesday, May 4.

This Alert Ready system is in addition to things like Voyent Alert, which is used by both the City of Kamloops and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.