BURSTSmithers council received another look at a draft cold weather plan during its regular meeting on Feb. 24.
In October 2025, the Town of Smithers awarded a $26,000 contract, funded by the Northern Development Initiative Trust, to Calian to create a Cold Response Plan. It is designed to help the town access provincial funding for emergency warming centres during extreme cold events.
Luke Palmer, Senior Emergency Management Analyst with Calian Ltd., presented the plan to council, explaining that it involves a tiered response system: Level 1 (cold watch), Level 2 (extended cold temperatures and potential power outages), and Level 3 (emergency conditions).
“We are working with the town of Smithers, the Fire Department as well as external community partners, just to make sure it meets the operational requirements, but also the realities,” he said. “We intend to empower you to act early, escalate quickly, assign responsibility and document everything. And the biggest thing is making sure that we’re monitoring conditions, but being ready to act appropriately, to augment current available solutions that are in the community, but also provide additional supports where those capacities are exceeded quickly or just not meeting the demand that exists.”
The idea behind the plan is to develop a comprehensive Cold Weather Response Plan that meets legislative requirements and create a plan that will reflect operational realities for the Town of Smithers Fire Department; and ensures safeguarding of vulnerable populations while enhancing community resilience.
Palmer said that responsibility is a large component of the plan, ensuring everybody knows the lanes that they operate in and also the actions that they’re responsible for.
“But the biggest thing is collaborating and coordinating with all the various groups that are attached to full response plan and really any emergency that exists in the community, and at the end of the day, we want to make sure it’s firmly documented,” he said.
The temporary winter shelter is a key part of the town’s current response structure and is incorporated into the broader plan. The shelter provides short-term emergency accommodation from Oct. 31 to April 1. It operates separately from the emergency or cold weather response plan.
Palmer said the Cold Response Plan is intended to augment the services already provided by the temporary winter shelter team. He said the plan allows the town to identify when additional shelters need to be activated, mobilize Emergency Support Services volunteers through the fire department, and communicate with residents about where they can access support in the community.
“The plan really enables that coordination piece at the operational level, from the Temporary Winter Shelter back to the town itself,” he said.
The final plan will be presented to council on March 10 for approval.