Unanimous support from Vancouver councillors to create earthquake risk mitigation strategy

A report presented to city councillors Tuesday details how destructive a mega earthquake could be for Vancouver.

The report was led by Micah Hilt, a seismic policy planner hired by the City of Vancouver.

The findings are stark. Up to $17 billion worth of destruction is predicted, more than 6,000 privately owned buildings could be damaged and more than 1,300 people could potentially be severely injured or killed.

Those numbers are a prediction for what would happen if a magnitude-7.2 earthquake were to strike the city. Scientists predict a megathrust earthquake will strike the city sometime in the next 50 years.

Hilt’s findings show six neighbourhoods make up 65 per cent of the overall risk in the city:

• West End
• Downtown Eastside
• Downtown
• Kitsilano
• Fairview
• Mount Pleasant

"In those areas, three-quarters of the people are renting. Many of them are low-income. Many of them are seniors. And that is a key focus as we work to develop a strategy to reduce risk gradually,” Hilt said in an interview with CTV News.

Many of the buildings in those neighbourhoods were built before 1990 and are made up of older brick, wood and concrete, posing a greater risk.

All councillors voted in favour of developing a comprehensive seismic risk reduction strategy for 2025, a move one Kieth Porter says is beneficial for the entire country.

"We are all connected economically,” said Porter, the chief engineer with the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.

“A catastrophe in British Columbia and Vancouver because city council fails to act would harm the rest of the country."

The current report does not outline costs. Hilt says the undertaking will no doubt be massive, calling for federal and provincial support.

While the costs would be substantial, Porter says it’s much cheaper to do now than later.

"(Councillors') choice is between paying for mitigation now in a stately, well-thought-out plan process or recovering from a disaster and then paying for the mitigation,” Porter said.

The report suggests the city prioritize the highest-risk buildings and look at incentives to help building owners upgrade their properties.