Council adopted the Municipal District of Bighorn’s Emergency Management Plan, but an Emergency Management Bylaw has been delayed at least a month after being deemed insufficient by a councillor.
Unanimous consent was denied for the Emergency Management Bylaw after Councillor Paul Ryan voted against it at the Jan. 13 regular meeting.
Ryan expressed unease toward what he thought was a lack of assurance in the communications aspect that an emergency management director would communicate to elected members of the community during a state of local emergency. He thought a clause should be included into the bylaw.
“I don’t believe it’s sufficient so I’ll have to oppose it,” Ryan said during the meeting. “It doesn’t have a guarantee council will be advised under the Emergency Plan. I’m opposed to it.”
The bylaw specifies during a state of emergency what actions need to be completed and by whom; whether it’s the municipality or government organizations. Ryan said if council is responsible, then there should be a clear communication of how vital information is passed along to council and then the community.
Administration pointed out that the communication aspect was stated in the newly passed Emergency Management Plan (EMP), but Ryan questioned why the same communication aspect wasn’t featured in the proposed bylaw.
Councillors Erik Butters and Carolyn Montgomery stated they thought the communications aspect was covered in the Emergency Plan and did not need to be embedded into the bylaw.
A motion was put forward by Ryan to amend the bylaw and include the communication clause. Ryan and Reeve Dene Cooper voted in favour, while councillors Butters, Montgomery and Paul Clark opposed and defeated the motion.
Council was to then give all three readings to Bylaw 08/14, the Bighorn Emergency Management Bylaw and it again saw opposition.
Cooper and Ryan voted against the motion at first reading. During second reading Ryan was the lone council member to oppose it, which denied unanimous consent.
The bylaw will be in front of council at the next regular meeting, which may include motions to amend the bylaw.
At the same meeting, council unanimously agreed to approve the EMP, stating they were satisfied with it and it was well done.
Following the 2013 floods, many thought Bighorn’s EMP – thought to be 12-14 years old - was wildly outdated. In the new EMP report it states, it “is a general document that addresses the response to emergency situations with respect to safeguarding the public, communicating what is occurring and moving towards normalcy in lives as quickly as possible.”
The EMP does not tackle how emergency responders carry out their task in the field or specify types of potential emergencies.
