Photo: Columbia Shuswap Regional District

The new board chair of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District says 2024 was “a year of recovery and a year of getting back in a groove."

Natalya Melnychuk said the CSRD spent a lot of last year dealing with the aftermath of the 2023 Bush Creek East wildfire.

“We spent a lot of time listening and learning from residents and professionals,” she said.

“The CSRD was pretty thorough in terms of going out to the community. …But then we also met with different government agency partners from the province, with the Emergency Operations Center staff and with the board members as well as a whole.”

She said the CSRD took steps to learn from the wildfire response in order to better manage future emergencies.

“It's about building back better in terms of our process and our policy, so that when the next emergency happens, we will be better prepared,” she said. “That also included additional emergency training as well, for for both staff and officials.”

Board members took part in crisis communications training in November of last year, and Melnychuk said she felt the additional training paid off with the emergency response during the Hullcar Mountain wildfire.

“The Hullcar Mountain fire was one in particular that allowed us to illustrate the developments of improvement in that response,” she said. “The creation of a satellite information centre and working with the Electoral Area Director Dean Trumbley in Silver Creek to provide residents with a local place to go for reliable information.”

Melnychuk said hundreds of residents came to the Silver Creek Hall for accurate information about the fire.

“And as a result, I think we saw a lot of a calmer response,” she said.

Another big focus for the CSRD in 2024 was strengthening Indigenous awareness and cultural sensitivity, Melnychuk said.

“Opening up a dialogue with the regional district government and all of the different bands that touch the Shuswap watershed in particular,” she said.

“We have directions from the provincial and federal level that we need to be moving into a different reconciliation-based conversation, and some of that effort is starting.”

Looking forward into 2025, Melnychuk said she is hoping for another mild wildfire season.

“I'm knocking on wood that we're going to have a smooth year, and hopefully we will have another year where we don't see large weather-based emergencies,” she said. “That helps in the tourism and economic development side of things, where we can have people come and enjoy our beautiful area.”

Melnychuk said she foresees 2025 as another busy year for the regional district as it moves forward with community engagement on its parks master plan and possible changes to garbage and recycling collection.

Melnychuk said changes to the solid waste management plan might not be the most exciting to discuss, but could be important for residents this year.

She said the CSRD will be seeking public input on options and priorities for waste collection.

Melnychuk also noted the CSRD will be moving forward with an alternative approval process for a road rescue service as well as a new fire department for the community of Field, located outside of Golden.

“Those are big projects that the community will be seeing come on to the radar of the CSRD,” she added.

Other upcoming projects include the new regional accessibility committee and ongoing work with the provincial government on short term rentals and affordable housing.

“In terms of my own personal reflection, I really appreciate that we came out of something that was pretty serious as an emergency in 2023 and have regrouped from that,” Melnychuk said.

“We're really starting to move forward into a space of effectiveness and efficiency and continuing that movement in a positive way.”