Chris Marsh
Chris is an emergency management professional with over 25 years of public service and public safety experience. Chris created Clear Sky Consulting in July of 2020 with the intent of supporting rural communities across western Canada with their emergency management planning.
Prior to starting his own business, Chris was the Manager of Emergency Programs for the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary. Over a three-year span, Chris led the Regional District through several emergency events, including wildfire evacuations, hazardous materials spills, landslides, severe weather events, and multiple flooding emergencies.
Chris was also a key member of the Emergency Management BC Temporary Emergency Assignment Management System (TEAMS) for 10 years. Chris holds a Certificate in Emergency Management from the Justice Institute of BC and a Diploma in Environmental Science from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Chris was the Emergency Operations Centre Director over a six-week span, starting in May 2018, during the Kettle River flooding. The Kettle River flood was a 1 in 200-year event, and the most impactful and damaging flooding in BC since 1948 (at the time). Over 1500 properties were evacuated along the Kettle, West Kettle and Granby Rivers. Over 400 homes and businesses were damaged. The incident response required the support of the Canadian Armed Forces, additional RCMP forces, and support from many BC provincial ministries, health authorities and utility providers. Response and recovery costs, along with insurable and uninsurable losses exceeded $88 million.
Following the Kettle River flooding, Chris was a Flood Recovery Manager for two years. Chris managed a multi-disciplinary team of professionals who supported the flood affected communities through the rebuilding process. Significant effort was applied to housing, economic, environmental, critical infrastructure and human wellness recovery.
Prior to his career in emergency management, Chris had a 15-year career in environmental monitoring. Chris was an air and climate monitoring technician, then the air and climate network coordinator for the entire BC air and climate monitoring network.
Finally, Chris was the air and climate network manager, responsible for 7 staff, a network of 85 sites (including air quality health sites) and a capital budget of over $8 million. Chris is comfortable with large scale project coordination and excels at putting quality assurance systems in place to maintain project integrity.
Chris is a life-long public safety professional. He is a paid-on-call firefighter with the Kootenay Boundary Regional Fire Rescue service, and previously held the rank of Captain. Chris is a NFPA 10-01 accredited structural firefighter, a certified fire service instructor and evaluator, and a first medical responder.
Chris leads highly effective teams with inclusion, collaboration, insight, and professionalism. Chris’ teams provide a high level of support for clients, while ensuring the resilience and effectiveness of team members and clients through empathy and compassion.