Tanya Foubert CANMORE
One year after Canmore’s mountain creeks caused devastating damage in the community, it’s not just flood prevention infrastructure the municipality has been working on to prepare itself for future disasters.
On Tuesday (June 17), council approved an updated emergency management bylaw and 183-page emergency management plan.
While reviewing the two documents, manager of protective services Greg Burt recalled for council how during the June 2013 event getting information out to the community was challenging on the municipality’s web page.
As a result, Burt said administration has developed a webpage specifically to provide information to the public during emergency situations.
“We need to have an emergency website running in the background that we can pull out in time during an emergency,” Burt said.
Last year, the Town’s main webpage was inundated with people looking for information and while it was available, it was not well organized. Posts did not include dates and times and that was one criticism the public had about accessing information at canmore.ca – they couldn’t tell what was posted when.
The new site, said Burt, automatically generates time and date, clearly separates new and old feeds, provides the current warning status, and provides contact numbers and an emergency map. The map can also include colour-coded separate zones in the community with specific details for each, as well as locations of reception centres and potable water stations.
The bylaw approved on Tuesday replaces one from 2010 and simplifies and removes duplication with the provincial Emergency Management Act. That act requires the municipality to be responsible for the direction and control of emergency response, prepare and approve emergency plans, appoint a director of emergency management and declare, renew and terminate a state of local emergency.
Declaring a state of emergency is delegated to the local emergency committee and Burt said in the bylaw that committee membership is only the mayor. If the mayor is unable to make the declaration, it goes to the deputy mayor and then the first member of council who is able and present to do so.
The emergency management plan is also a document last approved in 2010 and Burt said since that time small and large scale disasters have occurred, prompting the review. The plan contains an overview, emergency response guidelines, emergency coordination centre checklists, hazard-specific plans, recovery roles and procedures and a number of appendices.
It also sets out general evacuation procedures. There was confusion in 2013 about whether or not the evacuation order in Cougar Creek was mandatory or voluntary and Burt said clear procedures in the plan address those issues.
Canmore has also been testing its emergency response trailer at Cougar Creek. The test is for video camera technology the trailer is equipped with. The trailer was bought with disaster recovery program funding.
Burt also said Bylaw Services researched how many sandbags were available in Canmore for purchase from hardware stores and found only five. As a result, the municipality has made empty sandbags it ordered, also with DRP funds, available for sale to community members.
“We have acquired 7,500 and we have another 10,000 on order,” he said. “It is a stockpile for emergency preparedness for an emergency response, but our investigation found that there were only five filled sandbags available for sale in town and there was nowhere people could purchase empty sandbags.”
They are available for purchase in bundles of 15 for $15, which includes GST. They can be bought at the Civic Centre front desk during office hours or at the Elevation Place customer experience desk. Residents will have to purchase sand to fill them.
