WESTLOCK — The Town of Westlock can rest assured knowing its nearby neighbours will be there to help during an emergency situation.
At the Feb. 12 regular council meeting, councillors unanimously voted 7-0 to adopt a new regional emergency framework that will see Westlock County, the Village of Clyde and the Town of Westlock collaborate in an emergency situation.
Details of the framework was shared at the meeting by CAO Simone Wiley, who noted the work done via the town and county inter-municipal collaboration framework, that identified emergency management services as an area for collaboration among the three municipalities.
The framework will help determine which incidents require a regional emergency response.
“We’ve been working with Westlock County and the Village of Clyde for a little while, under a collaboration grant as well from the province, to do this work and come up with an emergency management framework,” said Wiley. “A little while ago out of this grant, we also were able to do individual emergency response plans for us as individual municipalities. This document is the overall framework of how we’ll cooperate together as municipalities in the event of an emergency.”
Wiley pointed out the kinds of incidents that would “necessitate a regional approach” to emergency response, including a multi-jurisdictional event, an event that challenges the municipality’s response capability, and an emergency social services activation.
“We have identified in the region that we are not large enough for us each to have our individual emergency social services and so we’re going to share that all the time, under the town’s umbrella of emergency social services, but we’ll activate when necessary if (there) is a social services need for Westlock County or the Village of Clyde,” explained Wiley.
The framework also highlights communication in the region and states that regional directors of emergency management will have a formal meeting “on a minimal, annual basis.”
“The directors of emergency management from the town, county and village will formally meet,” said Wiley, noting a template provides an outline of what is discussed in such meetings. “But it also contemplates reasons why these directors may want to meet informally throughout the year as well, so that would be myself, the CAO from the county is their director of emergency management and the CAO from the Village of Clyde is also their director of emergency management,” she added.
The framework also outlines required emergency management training among the three municipalities, which includes participating in exercises regularly to practice skills.
“… It puts a commitment on the three municipalities that we will train our people to the same standards so that we can rely on each other should the need arise (and) that we can be confident that everyone is trained to the same level and can work together with a common language,” said Wiley, noting a requirement to do exercises annually under the emergency act. “This formalizes the fact that we’ll do those together, train together as well,” Wiley concluded.
The Village of Clyde and Westlock County have also adopted the regional emergency framework.
