Bowen Island receives funding for Mt. Gardner repeater upgrade

News Release
August 18, 2021

BOWEN ISLAND – Bowen Island Municipality has received a $25,000 grant through the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and Training stream of the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF), a partnership between the Union of BC Municipalities and the Province of BC. The grant will fund a major upgrade to the Mt. Gardner radio repeater, improving radio communication capacity across the island.

The CEPF program is intended to support communities to buy equipment and supplies to maintain or improve their emergency operations centres and to enhance the capacity of local emergency co-ordination hubs through training and exercises.

Communications on Bowen Island have historically been a challenge. Due to Mt. Gardner’s position, many ‘dead zones’ in and around the island have put municipal and emergency response radio communications in sometimes precarious positions. The addition of a repeater atop Mt. Gardner will mitigate these issues and significantly improve Bowen Island’s ability to communicate with a multitude of organizations in the event of a local or regional disaster.

“The emergency operations centre is the hub of response and recovery in an emergency event,” said Mayor Gary Ander. “This repeater upgrade will allow responders to communicate quickly and effectively with one another and the EOC during an active emergency response, especially allowing radio signals to reach areas that have been ‘dead zones’ on the island.”