Executive Summary

The role of Emergency Management is to provide a prompt and coordinated response to emergencies that overwhelm the ability of the responding department and requires a multi-agency response.

A Municipal Emergency Plan has been prepared. It is reviewed yearly by all members of our Emergency Operation Center.

The format for the municipal plan is similar to the Provincial plan. This is to ensure appropriate succession and consistency should a situation require outside assistance.

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Municipal Emergency Plan is divided into four parts

Part #1 - Emergency Management
Part #2 - Emergency Operations Procedures
Part #3 - Emergency Response Plans
Part #4 - References

PART 1
Emergency Management - The plan is prepared by Emergency Management under the authority of the Disaster Services Bylaw and must be reviewed yearly by the Protective Services Standing Committee of Council.

The plan can be activated in whole or in part by the Mayor, members of Council, or staff, however, Council ratification is required.

Emergency Management is organized as follows:

REGIONAL COUNCIL
PROTECTIVE SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
EMERGENCY SERVICES AGENCY
(Emergency Operation Center)
INCIDENT COMMAND

Council is responsible for direction and control of Municipal Emergency Response. When the plan is activated in whole or in part, coordination is delegated to:

DIRECTOR OF DISASTER SERVICES
EMERGENCY OPERATION CENTER
INCIDENT COMMAND

Resources come from the agency responding to the emergency and can be supplemented, if required, by Mutual Aid Partners. Provincial assistance will be requested only if necessary.

Communications occur in the following order:

1) Alerting Emergency Services
2) Advise the public

The responsibility for advising the general public rests with elected officials. Procedures are in place to ensure this occurs swiftly and efficiently.

PART 2
Emergency Operations Procedures - The Municipal Emergency Plan has 3 levels of Emergency Alert.

Level 1 - Agency capable of responding with own resources (Low impact, low duration, no coordination)
Level 2 - Requires Mutual Aid (High impact, low duration, mutual aid, potential EOC activation)
Level 3- Requires Emergency Operation Center (High impact, high duration, requires multi-agency response, external resources, EOC activation)

A detailed operation procedure has been established for all required agencies/personnel that have a significant role in the Regional Emergency Operation Center.

PART 3
Emergency Response Plans - Both internal and external Emergency Response Plans are contained in the Municipal Emergency Plan. Areas that have a significant involvement or outside agencies include:

INTERNAL

EXTERNAL

PART 4
References - This section deals with Risk Assessment which is used to prioritize planning response, warning system guidelines, and various operational guidelines such as:

Sandbagging for flood control
Critical Incident Stress Management for First Responders
School planning guidelines for Public and Separate School Boards
Mutual Aid Agreements, Municipal Bylaws, Disaster Services Act and various maps/charts are also in this section.

Finally, a plan is included for Fort Chipewyan, Fort Fitzgerald, Fort MacKay, Saprae Creek, Anzac/Gregoire, Chard/Javier and Conklin. These have been developed with each community and are reviewed on an annual basis.