Vernon Fire Rescue Services doing a controlled burn in 2020 (stock photo courtesy of the City of Vernon)

By Liam Verster

Mitigation, Preparedness, Response & Recovery

Vernon combines emergency reserves into one fund, adds $215K

Jun 25, 2025 | 6:00 AM

The City of Vernon has amalgamated its funding used during emergency situations, to help better manage the money.

At the regular meeting Monday, June 23, Vernon City Council was presented with an opportunity to consolidate the Emergency Planning, Emergency Response, and Extreme Wildfire reserves into one fund, the Emergency Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery Reserve.

“The purpose of the new consolidated reserve would be expanded to reflect all phases of emergency management, and permit use for additional resources to be deployed mid-year for fire rescue management transitions,” a city staff report said.

“Consolidating the reserves would enhance the overall management of the reserves.”

The report added the Extreme Wildfire Reserve was historically used to pay staff at Fire Station 3, at Predator Ridge, for overtime during wildfire seasons, as that was previously tracked separately from the budget process.

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To account for the additional overtime costs and the broader reach of the reserve, it was recommended that the minimum balance be increased to $300,000 by contributing $215,648 from the Prior Year Unexpended Uncommitted Balance.

Council received the report Monday and voted unanimously in favour of consolidating the reserves under one fund, topping it up with the money from the unexpended balance, and to fund overtime wildfire costs through the new reserve.