While evacuation plans have been developed for the community of Sun Peaks, it is being kept away from the public eye, at least for now.
The municipality says it will only share the plans – which were developed by Kamloops-based Innomergence – will only be shared with the public in the event of an emergency happens, as it says the evacuation routes that are chosen will depend on the hazard at hand.
According to the Sun Peaks News, the document presented at council stated that the plans developed were “intentionally non-prescriptive”
“It can’t get too prescriptive because we can’t predict the nature of what every hazard is going to do with exact certainty,” Elaine Scott from Innomergence said.
Mayor Al Raine disagrees with the move, telling Radio NL he believes the basic principals of the plan should be easily accessible to residents and business owners ahead of an emergency situation.
“The public is smart enough to be able to digest that information,” Raine said. “We’ve asked the Fire Chief and staff to prepare the core evacuation plan for public consumption.”
“The concept, the basic principles of the plan should be available to the public online so people concerned in the case of a fire would be able to see it. It would show various route options depending on where the fire is.”
Raine says people are smart enough to understand if there is a fire to the west – like the Embleton Mountain Fire near Whitecroft in 2021 – people would not be able to use Heffley-Louis Creek Road to evacuate.
“I think sometimes we forget that the average person is much smarter than we give them credit for. They can read a plan, and they can understand if there is a fire in the west, they won’t be able use this evacuation route. They’ll have to use the other one. There is some common sense here.”
While Heffley-Louis Creek Road though Whitecroft is the main road to Sun Peaks, the McGilivray Lake Forestry Road to Chase is another option, but speaking to Radio NL in July 2021, Sun Peaks Resort Marketing Manager Aidan Kelly told Radio NL it could definitely use an upgrade to turn it into a more permanent access to Sun Peaks.
“It’s not like a little tight dirt road access, its a proper gravel road but it wouldn’t be highly recommended in a sedan at all, but for a good chunk of vehicles, it’s a viable road,” Kelly said.
“From a resident perspective, we’re not at the point where we are relying on that access road but it is comforting to know that we have two different ways in and out of the community, when required.”
