Emergency Support Services

To qualify for ESS support, your primary residence must be located within an Evacuation Order area. People evacuated from vacation rentals or owners of secondary residences in the Evacuation Order area are not eligible to receive ESS assistance.

If you have been evacuated from your home and are in need of assistance, please proceed to the ESS Reception Centre listed on your Evacuation Order, when applicable, by your local government. To learn more about the Emergency Support Services program, click here.

If you do not require ESS assistance, you do not need to attend the reception centre. Further, in many cases, home or tenant insurance actually provides greater support than what is available through ESS. Be sure to speak with your insurance representative to see what’s available to you.

If you do require ESS assistance for shelter, food, or incidentals, you must visit a Reception Centre to apply for and complete a process to confirm your eligibility as determined by the ESS host.

To speed up processing, evacuees requiring ESS assistance should:

• Register online at ess.gov.bc.ca. This will allow the ESS volunteers at the reception centre to find your file and process you more quickly; and
• Download and activate the BC Services Card App from the Google Play or Apple App Store. While this is not required to access ESS supports, it will allow evacuees to receive supports quicker via E-transfer.
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Evacuee Registration

You can register for Emergency Support Services in one of two ways:

• In person at a designated Reception Centre.
• Self-register online using the Evacuee Registration and Assistance (ERA) tool. This can help streamline the process for when you arrive at the Reception Centre. This can be accessed at: ess.gov.bc.ca.

If you require assistance with self-registration, you can ask for help by calling the Province of BC’s Emergency Support Services Info Line: 1-800-585-9559.