Williams Lake, B.C. – Work continues to allow for the safe return home for residents currently under evacuation order in the Cariboo.

It’s a collaborative effort between the CRD, the District of 100 Mile House, the City of Williams Lake and First Nations.

It includes a coordinated effort to establish priority services – such as medical, BC Hydro, cable – services critical for such a return.

“To put the building blocks in place to do the work in advance of perhaps bringing people home,” says CRD chair Al Richmond. “So, we’re trying to do as much as we feasibly can so that we can move quickly when it becomes apparent that we can actually invite people to come back.”

He says 100 Mile House is closest to having these services in place where plans are well underway to establish emergency healthcare, emergency 911 service, power, food services, and waste management services.

Richmond says Williams Lake is not far behind though concedes specific timetables have not been set.

“No, because we’ve got to complete some of the tasks. If you’re going to invite people to come home, you have to have some medical services for them but we’re not putting a timetable on it.”

Is he concerned going public with the re-entry plan is getting people’s hopes up prematurely?

“We thought this would have people say, ‘they really are working on it, they put it in writing.’ We’re not saying that to divert their attention, we’ve put it out there because we really are working on this and we really are getting close to checking the boxes off of what we have to do before we can invite people home.”