Thank You and Good Night - Sea Festival Closing Fireworks

See you next year for the 75th version

Where You Can Vacation And Be Home The Same Day

Yell It Like It Is

We all will remember how we felt when we heard the news of the terrible tragic event at the Vancouver Lapu Lapu festival, when a man made it past the safety barriers and roared down a closed roadway packed with people. Eleven people died, dozens were injured many of them hospitalized. The Provincial government was quick to respond. An inquiry was ordered and the findings and recommendations were released in short order.

Some of the recommendations are listed below.

The Six Recommendations 

Retired B.C. Supreme Court judge Chris Hinkson led the independent commission. He was tasked by the provincial government to report back with his findings by June 30. The report is dated June 26.

Yung said the provincial government accepts the intent of the recommendations and will be working through them to determine how best to implement them.

"This is about keeping people safe, supporting people maintaining public confidence in the safety of our gatherings with our friends families and across the city and across the province, because everyone deserves and should be safe."

1. Risk assessment in event planning

In the first recommendation, the report noted that all public events in the province regardless of size should be support by a risk assessment.

The recommendation notes that while it doesn't need to complex, it should consider the event's scale, location, activities and potential hazards. It adds that it should also evaluate existing safety measures, identify any gaps and assign clear responsibilities for emergency planning, access and crowd management.

The risk assessment could be prepared by event organizers, municipal staff, or collaboratively, depending on local capacity.

2. Clarifying jurisdictional roles in event oversight

Hinkson said the province should establish clear criteria for consultation that defines the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved in the event planning, approval and emergency response. He adds the framework should determine who's in charge of decision making and how to coordinate between event organizers, municipal and regional governments, first responders, provincial agencies, and Indigenous authorities.

The report points to adapting elements of the United States' National Incident Management System.

3. Training for planning support and a centralized hub

4. Support for event delivery and local capacity

5. Foster local collaboration on event safety

6. Promote learning through event evaluation

Last Saturday evening July 26, I was tasked with delivering greetings on behalf of the city at the Salsa Dancing By The Pier evening in Memorial Park. This was the second such event I attended on behalf of the city this summer. Both events were packed with hundreds of dancers in Memorial Park enjoying our beautiful seaside.

When I left the event I couldn't help but notice the safety bollards dotted along the entrance to the park along Marine Drive, were unlocked. The bollards are there to prevent any unwanted vehicle access into Memorial Park. I thought given the recent tragic event at the Lapu Lapu festival this may be a safety violation. I imagined the bollards were unlocked so they could be removed to allow the organizers of the dance to be able to back a vehicle in to unload all their supplies including a transportable dance floor used for the event. I wrongly assumed the bollards would be locked at the end of the event by city staff once the event concluded Saturday evening @ 10 p.m.

On Sunday morning I had a meeting with a business owner on Marine Drive @ 10 a.m. As I walked along Marine Drive I cast my eyes over to check the safety status of the bollards. I was taken back in that the bollards remained unlocked? Again I will take full responsibility that I wrongly assumed city staff would be down there before crowds arrived. I was wrong.

Now knowing we may have a problem I drove down Monday morning to check the lock status. Still unlocked.

I immediately contacted JIM GORDON Director of Engineering & Municipal Operations / City of White Rock. I wished to make Mr. Gordon aware of the situation in order that he possibly would be able direct staff to remedy the problem. In that over the years I have come to depend on immediate responses from Mr. Gordon I was confident the problem was solved. I was in no way directing him to do anything, which of course is not the job of council, but I was confident he would immediately address the problem.

On Tuesday as I was driving along Marine drive I glanced over and was horrified that the bollard locks on two of the bollards were actually danging off of the top of the bollards in clear view. My call to MR. GORDON to follow up on my Monday call was met with a very agitated response. MR GORDON was shocked the problem had not been attended to as he had specifically followed up with the department of the city that was responsible to oversee the safety at civic events. He thanked me and assured me he would address this lapse in safety measures.

It gets worse. On Wednesday the problem still existed, I left a phone message for MR. GORDON. I have yet to receive a reply. The locks have now been installed and it appears there are new combination locks in place of the old original key type locks. The actual reason for combination locks I do not know.

In closing I will revert to a portion of our long time columnist DON PITCAIRN'S editorial in The Naked Truth column which ran back in April where he identified safety problems in White Rock and Surrey's Crescent Beach that clearly allowed a similar event to the LAPU LAPU festival to happen in our community.

Over two months ago on Feb. 24, I wrote a rather chilling column titled "TNT on VAW" that exposed the safety problems at both Crescent Beach and White Rock, which allowed vehicles unauthorized access to the waterfront walkways in both of these seaside communities.  The second paragraph began with "Now most people would not find this alarming but with vehicles being used as battering rams in pedestrian areas throughout the world, I thought this problem needed to be investigated." It ended with "The recent Mr. Chill ice cream van bombing attempt on the W.R. Bennett Bridge in Kelowna in January should serve as a wake-up call to the need for increased security around pedestrian walkways in this country including here in the Semiahmoo peninsula. This is even more important for those areas that attract large crowds for events, holidays or warm summer days." With the "Vehicle As Weapon" ramming attack at the Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver this weekend, it unfortunately appears that my fears were both accurate and prophetic.

(click here to read the full archived article)

When the article was brought to the aforementioned MR. GORDON much to his credit he immediately put in motion measures to address the majority of the areas of concern Don Pitcairn identified.

So here we are on the eve of our annual Sea Festival where thousands of visitors and residents will visit our waterfront. Fingers crossed all safety measures will be in place.

I for one will be watching.

We can do better. And we should.

DAVID CHESNEY

Editor/Publisher

A Tsunami Watch Advisory has been issued by BC's Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness for the Coast of BC. 

The City of White Rock is not under advisory, and no evacuation is required. 

The following safety measures are in place from Tuesday, July 29 at 11 p.m. until Wednesday, July 30 at 10 a.m.:

• Stay off beaches and above the high water mark

  Do not access the floating dock off the Pier

• Stay out of the water as stronger currents are expected 

Stay updated at emergencyinfobc.gov.bc.ca or the National Tsunami Warning Center website at tsunami.gov

A new radio station has launched in Surrey. Goodbye SPICE RADIO hello SWIFT.

Sudhir Datt launched Spice Radio in 2005 she became the first Canadian woman to receive a broadcasting license from the CRTC. She's also been named Broadcaster of the Year by the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters and is a Member of the Order of British Columbia.

SPICE RADIO signed off this past Friday and instantly the airwaves were filled with a dynamic mix of news, talk shows, music, current affairs, and community programming in a variety of South Asian languages—including Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, and more. The new radio station will be known as RADIO SWIFT and is located at 1220 on your am radio dial.

(click here to listen to SWIFT'S broadcast day)