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British Columbia is unique in the way that the provincial government
takes a proactive role in planning for and responding to emergency or
disaster situations. This is done through the Provincial Emergency
Program (PEP) which is part of the Ministry of the Attorney General.
They have a relatively small staff of planners and administrators with
a lot of responsibilty on their shoulders. The one job function that
directly affects us as Amateur Radio operators is their assistance with
organizing and training volunteer groups and then supporting the
volunteers in their jobs. For more information, follow the links at the
bottom of this page. PERCS, the Provincial Emergency Radio Communication Service, was conceived by a group of Amateur Radio operators who are volunteer members of PEP's Radio Advisory Committee. The Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) representative was one of the architects of PERCS. A letter of agreement was established between RAC, PEP, and PERCS to define the partnership and our working relationship. In BC, there are only a few ARES groups and these groups are expected to work with and under the direction of the establised PEP/PERCS management teams. These teams use a customized version of ICS (Incident Command System) called BCERMS (British Columbia Emergency Response Management System). We are part of PEP's north-east region which includes 36% of the total area of the province. We have volunteers in every community with Amateur Radio operators. We provide emergency radio communications for the Provincial Emergency Program (PEP), the Emergency Operation Centres (EOC) in our local communities and regional districts, and volunteer emergency response groups, primarily Search And Rescue (SAR). We also provide support for community events in the region. Our team has set up the radio room in PEP's Provincial Regional Emergency Operations Centre (PREOC), designed and built a transportable radio system for the City of Prince George EOC, and we own a custom built mobile emergency communication trailer. PGARC and PGSAR are both non-proffit volunteer societies who work under the PEP umbrella to provide volunteer help when things go wrong. Both groups also provide emergency response assistance to other communities through mutual aid. PGARC has partnered with PGSAR to provide radio operators for them and to support them with our communications trailer and repeater network. PGARC is also supplying space in our mountain top radio sites for SAR repeater systems. For more information about our emergency response activities, check our news page.
Acrobat Format Documents North-West BC Amateur Radio Emergency Plan
External Links PEP - Provincial Emergency Program RAC - Radio Amateurs of Canada PGSAR - Prince George Search And Rescue Society
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