WESTLOCK - Westlock County will be working more closely with the Town of Westlock and the Village of Clyde the next time an emergency is declared in the region.
County councillors approved the regional emergency framework, which sets out how the three governments will respond to any disaster in the area, at their Jan. 9 meeting.
The framework has been a work in progress since August of 2022, when the three local governments started co-ordinating updates to their respective emergency plans, according to Chief Administrative Officer Tony Kulbisky.
Councillor Stuart Fox-Robinson expressed concern that the framework was approved to be released last February according to background documents, but Kulbisky noted that the consultant on the project was still working on updates after that time. “There were some challenges with the contractor to actually get the contract completed,” he said.
Initial response between the three governments to incidents is not a problem, Kulbisky said, but challenges arise when emergency situations last several months, such as wildfires, and in recovery from emergencies. The framework is designed to address those challenges.
The next step will be creating a new detailed emergency plan for the county, which will come to council at a forthcoming meeting, Kulbisky said.
