The resilience of the City of Kelowna: Exploring mitigation before, during and after the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire

This paper provides a discussion of a resilient community, through the exploration of impacts, reactions and mitigative adjustments adopted by the City of Kelowna before, during and after the OMPF. The paper provides context for disaster mitigation decision making in Canada and British Columbia, including a review of relevant legislation and government programs related to emergency management. It discusses the adoption of mitigation measures in the City of Kelowna, as well as barriers that led to reduced adoption of mitigative adjustments, and obstacles that had to be overcome to implement measures. Methods for the study included meetings and interviews with key City of Kelowna staff, reviews of internal documents and literature reviews.