After 14 years of advocating for an emergency notification system, North Burnaby residents brought the issue to the forefront at Monday night's council meeting.
Capitol Hill residents and participants in the community advisory panel for Chevron's North Burnaby refinery delivered a delegation asking for the "speedy implementation" of a localized system that would notify residents near the refinery of an emergency, which could eventually cover the whole city.
Art Quan, a representative of the panel, said they meet with the refinery's management four times a year and the oil company is willing to fund the set-up fee and annual operating fee for the localized system.
"We recognize the City of Burnaby has jurisdiction for emergency notification," Quan said. "So the system we're proposing would be administered and managed by the City of Burnaby, working with the service provider who would maintain and operate the system. The system would be integrated into Burnaby's emergency response protocols."
Chevron's proposed system is web-based, requiring no hardware, and is used in North Vancouver and West Vancouver, according to Quan.
The system could also expand to eventually accommodate the rest of the city, according to Quan.
"We realize the neighbourhood around Chevron's North Burnaby refinery is not the only community in Burnaby that could benefit from an emergency notification system," Quan added. "We acknowledge that there are numerous pipelines that run throughout Burnaby and large crude oil storage and other petroleum product storage facilities as well as industrial facilities near other Burnaby neighbourhoods all (have) potential for serious incidents."
The delegation asked that council initiate an investigation into the proposal, a high priority be placed on advancing a localized system and the panel be included in developing the proposal along with the city.
"The community advisory panel has been anxiously waiting many years to have a rapid emergency notification system in place," he said.
Council referred the proposal to staff to come back with a report, but the mayor asked why Quan said the emergency notification system for Chevron was called a city responsibility.
"I just want to be clear, perhaps you don't understand that these refineries come under the jurisdiction of the federal government and we are told over and over again that these facilities are under the control of the federal government," Mayor Derek Corrigan said. "I would be surprised that the one function that was left to us was notifying people in case of an emergency."
Quan said Chevron has been in discussions with city staff regarding emergency notification and it was suggested that it was a city responsibility. He also noted that Chevron does not believe it has the authority to call a citizen to evacuate his or her home.
Corrigan said he's not sure if this is a city responsibility in this case, and it could lead to other issues.
"Being the cynical lawyer, I'm always worried about whether or not somebody is passing the liability for failure to notify or inappropriate notification," he said.
Corrigan added the city will look into why the North Shore is engaged in this system and under what circumstances they chose to be involved.
"It is an interesting issue," he noted. "It's one of those problems you get as the federal government consistently will pose these risks to the local community, but they're not there when the responsibilities be accepted for how you deal with those emergencies."
Corrigan said he didn't want anyone to think council has any control over the actions of oil refineries, gas lines or tank farms, which "all come under federal jurisdiction."
"When you follow the consistent approach that's been taken by the federal government withdrawing resources in communities that would support both emergencies and environmental disasters, then one becomes suspicious," he said. "I can't help being a little bit suspicious if the federal government would love to get all of the revenues, but to download as much of the risk onto local communities as possible.
"I'm sure they'd have a completely different explanation if you were to go to Ottawa."
Last year the Burnaby NOW reported that Chevron was in discussions with city staff about setting up a system and that the plan lied in the city's hands.
