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radio” operators who must be proficient enough to receive a licence from
the federal government.

Jeff Cornell, who has taken the courses and exams to become a ham
operator, believes that the federal government should make the process
easier to encourage more people to become radio enthusiasts. “In the event
of a major catastrophe, like a massive earthquake or a tsunami, we will need
reliable means of communication,” he says. “The amateur radio community
has proved itself able to provide that link in many emergencies around the
world.” The PEP Academy began offering the Emergency Radio Commu-
nications course to teach emergency coordinators how to use “ham radio”
operators in their communities.

The most widespread emergency that British Columbia has suffered
in the past fifty years was the 2003 “fire storm,’ which destroyed hundreds
of homes in the southern interior. At the time, Cornell was in charge of
British Columbia’s Emergency Social Services (ESS), formed a quarter-
century earlier as a province-wide network of 5,000 volunteers who become
the frontline workers during emergencies. They help evacuees find shelter,
food and other life necessities; they put separated family members in
contact with each other; and they organize and put to work all the other
volunteers who come in through the doors of an emergency reception
centre wanting to help. “In 2003,’ he remembers, “we had 37,000 people