All Things Considered: Evaluating Emergency Preparedness for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Populations in Canadian Cities

In the past few decades, an increase in the severity and the occurrence of natural disasters has been observed around the world. In parallel, the global population is growing, ageing, anddensifying, which will only intensify the impact of future natural disasters. When a disaster strikes, certain populations (people of low-income, people with disabilities, people with healthissues, people in the care of others, people with a low level of education, the very young, the elderly, the homeless, immigrants, and even tourists) become disproportionately affected priorto, during, and after the disaster due to their pre-existing vulnerabilities and disadvantages. While Canada experiences a range of natural disasters annually, their relatively small size andtendency to affect less populated areas have restricted their potential for devastation. However, with the recent occurrence of several large-scale disasters in similar high-income countries(Hurricane Katrina, the Christchurch earthquake series, and Hurricane Sandy) and the devastation they specifically caused among vulnerable and disadvantaged populations hasuncovered the need to properly plan for these groups in the face of disasters. This supervised research project aims to investigate how the vulnerable and disadvantagedpopulations of a large city (Vancouver, British Columbia) and a mid-sized city (Windsor, Ontario) in Canada would fare in a large-scale hypothetical disaster (respectively, a large earthquake andmajor flooding). The local, provincial, and federal emergency management plans and web resources for both cities were evaluated in their consideration of vulnerable and disadvantagedpopulations and of the hypothetical disaster. The analysis uncovered that emergency management plans and resources in Vancouver andWindsor did not properly or consistently address the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in the context of a large-scale disaster. Adequate consideration and planning forthese groups is therefore necessary not only to ensure the survival of many should a disaster strike, but also to reduce the societal disadvantage of their pre-existing vulnerabilities.The results of the analysis coupled with lessons learned and best practices with respect to vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in recent large-scale disasters were amalgamated todevelop the following recommendations for Vancouver, Windsor, and Canada as a whole: • Emergency preparedness, planning and response must be two-tiered: (1) for thegeneral population and (2) for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in order to ensure adequate consideration of these groups;• All levels of government and bodies (NGOs, transit agencies) involved in the preparedness, response, and recovery process must have public, clearly laid-out, andcoordinated emergency management plans and resources specifically for their concerned areas and vulnerable and disadvantaged populations;• Develop communication channels specifically for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in disasters;• Prioritize outreach and social network-building for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in preparation for a disaster;• Access to services, mobility, and outreach for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations must be prioritized in the immediate aftermath and short-term followinga disaster;• In emergency preparedness, response, and recovery, infrastructure that is essentialto the well-being of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, including communications, power, water, and transit, must be protected (when possible);• Use the aforementioned infrastructure to its full potential (ie. transit for the evacuation of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations) in order to improveefficiency and for these resources to be allocated repeatedly and in a variety of ways during the course of disaster response and recovery.This supervised research project does not pretend to analyze the capability of these cities to deal with vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in large-scale disasters. It rather seeks toevaluate the consideration of these groups in Canadian emergency management plans and web resources, opening the door for future and more in-depth research on the matter.

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