Municpal emergency response plan training

By Carlie Connolly

At the Cypress County council meeting on Nov. 4, council approved for the reeve and deputy reeve to complete the incident command system 100 and 200 level training courses for the Municipal and Regional Emergency Response Plans.

The county is legislated to have processes in place to protect the people in event of an emergency. Expenditures that are under the collaboration grant from the Alberta Municipal Affaire are to be complete by Dec. 31, 2014. And so, staff must complete training sessions within the next couple of months to be up to par.

Staff of 29 people will be trained from Cypress County up to the 200 level with the Reeve and Deputy Reeve also being trained. They will start off in the 100 level, which is a basic course with a basic introduction to the incident command system. From there, they will move on to the 200 level course which us a two day course where the staff will go into seminar rooms to work through the course. The 300 level courses are for those who have more responsibility in emergencies or emergency type settings.

Doug Henderson, the assistant chief administrating officer said that this has many benefits. One being knowing the lines of authority with knowing who is in charge. There are also processes so that the people in charge can go and get some sleep, and the new person can come in and slide into that position and know what’s going on. They can then take directions from their supervisor and give directions to other workers who can deal with the emergency.

Henderson says its way bigger than just fires. Its fires, floods, rail disasters and many other issues involved.

“With a consistent language and a consistent process, it can be applied to whatever the emergency incident is,” he said.

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