B.C.’s auditor general warns province isn’t adequately prepared for major quake

VICTORIA – B.C.’s auditor general says the provincial government isn’t prepared for a catastrophic earthquake.

In a report released today, auditor Russ Jones says Emergency Management BC has not made earthquake planning a priority.

He says the Office of the Auditor General made similar conclusions about B.C.’s poor state of earthquake preparedness 17 years ago in a previous report, but not much has changed since then.

Jones says successive B.C. governments have decided to dedicate resources to issues they consider more pressing than earthquake preparedness.

Opposition New Democrat public safety critic Kathy Corrigan says B.C. is in an earthquake-prone zone, but the government has not taken the issue seriously.

She says the recent attempt to appoint former Liberal solicitor general John Les to consult about earthquake preparedness now seems like a pre-emptive response to Jones’s report, which the government already had.