Message from Mayor Miller: Thank You to Our Community

On behalf of the District of Invermere and Council, I want to sincerely thank everyone who worked so hard throughout the power outage this past weekend to support our community.

Our Fire Department and Public Works teams were incredible and I want to thank them. While some of our firefighters were away supporting the Ta Ta Creek wildfire response, our volunteer firefighters stepped up here at home to make sure Invermere remained covered and responded to calls that came in during the outage. Their commitment to protecting our community both here at home and in neighbouring communities is something we can all be proud of.

Thank you to our Public Works team, whose dedication and hard work helped keep our community running during the outage. Working around the clock, they maintained essential water and wastewater services, managed garbage collection, cleared fallen trees and addressed many other needs as they arose. Their efforts made a significant impact.

Thank you to the Hydro One crews who worked to restore power, the Regional District of East Kootenay for supporting communications, regional and provincial partners, emergency responders, volunteers and everyone who stepped up to help a neighbour, support a local business to or lend a hand in any way.

Most importantly, thank you to the people of Invermere for your patience and with your willingness to look out for one another. Once again, you showed what makes this community so special.

This past weekend’s power outage was a reminder that significant weather events are happening more often and we need to continue to be prepared to support one another when they do.

One of the biggest lessons from this weekend is how important reliable communications are. Continuing to invest in communications infrastructure is a priority that has been raised by both our staff and residents and this experience reinforced just how essential it is for keeping our community connected during an emergency.

We know events like this will continue to happen and we will continue working to make sure Invermere is ready with the resources, infrastructure and the people needed to keep our community safe and connected.

On behalf of the District of Invermere, thank you to everyone who helped keep our community safe and running this weekend.