The Cowichan Valley Regional District is considering applying for a $400,000 provincial grant to assess the risk of tsunamis to the shorelines of the district, and prepare mitigation measures if one does occur.

The district鈥檚 committee of the whole voted unanimously that the board apply to the BC Disaster Resiliency and Innovation Fund for the funding to carry out tsunami modelling in the CVRD at its meeting on March 26.

Ryan Wainwright, the senior manager of Emergency Management Cowichan, said the CVRD鈥檚 current regional hazard, risk and vulnerability analysis does not list tsunamis.

He said that鈥檚 because the district doesn鈥檛 have validated and updated information to give emergency planners an idea as to how to quantify the risk on tsunamis.

鈥淸The Victoria Capital Regional District] completed their coastline tsunami mapping project a few years ago, and we鈥檙e hoping to do the same in the CVRD,鈥� Wainwright said.

The provincial grant opportunity is available to local authorities and First Nations in B.C. to help support risk assessment, mitigation, and resiliency building for natural hazards and climate-related risks in their region.

This is accomplished through the development and implementation of activities that bolster community resilience by providing data, building partnerships, and supporting long-term disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation planning.

Mill Bay/Malahat director Kate Segall, who is also chair of the board, said she learned in a university course when she was a student that the east coast of Vancouver Island is at a low risk for tsunamis, so she wondered about the rationale of the grant application.

鈥淚 know that we have a small area in Electoral Area F (Cowichan Lake South/Skutz Falls) that goes all the way to the west coast, so would the focus of the project be on the west coast?鈥� she asked Wainwright.

Wainright said he was also taught in university that the east coast of the Island is at lower risk of tsunamis than the west coast but, since then, the science has moved forward so the analysis and mapping would look at the entirety of the CVRD鈥檚 coastlines on both coasts.

He said the CVRD has information regarding the collapse of seawalls, near-shore earthquakes and other events that have the possibility of generating tsunamis on the Island鈥檚 east coast.

鈥淭he science has progressed in order to get us from the courses we took in university to where we鈥檙e using the best available data to assess the [tsunami] risk,鈥� Wainwright said.