Z1600 Emergency & Continuity Management Standard
The second edition of the CSA Z1600 emergency and continuity management program standard sets out requirements for a continual improvement process to develop, implement, maintain, and evaluate an emergency and continuity program. The CSA Z1600 Technical Committee has started the process to review and revise the Z1600 standard and we have been tasked with soliciting […]
Disaster Risk Reduction Panel
The Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) brought together a great panel at Mount Royal University (MRU) this past week. The symposium focused on fostering community resilience in a dynamic risk environment. Presentations highlighted innovations and trends in the field of disaster risk management with a specific emphasis on how communities and organizations can actively practice […]
Informal Leadership
Shortly after the 2005 floods in Calgary I was given the opportunity to represent Canada during the development of the ISO Standard on the Crisis Management of Water Utilities – ISO 24518. The new standard provides guidance for emergency and continuity management in order to respond and recover from any crisis situation. Standards development, especially […]
Flooding in British Columbia and What to Expect in the Wake of the Atmospheric River
Thinking about my past experiences with flooding in Alberta, and how we used the attached graphic to help create our Recovery plans. Not to mention the move from the “Honeymoon” Phase into “Disillusionment” as I listen to the coverage on television and the accolades being given in all directions. Yes, every disaster is different, but […]
Live Streaming Your EOC During Crisis
The situation in Oroville and the California State EOC may change the way we do business as Emergency Managers in the future. During my tenure as an EOC Manager I had to deal with two major floods and the upstream dams that needed to use their spillways in order to manage the incoming flows. In […]
Emergency Management Competencies
Hello Emergency Management Practitioners, With all of the devastation that is occurring this year there is even greater focus on our profession. IAEM Canada has spent the last year researching competencies of the emergency manager from literature dating back to the early 2000’s. Documentation from the USA, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada have contributed to […]
Cascading Effects of a Pandemic
There was a lot learned from SARS. The after action reports pointed fingers at the federal, provincial and local health practitioners about how unprepared they were. The Health Sector took this seriously and held national Critical Infrastructure Pandemic Planning workshops and implemented changes to be more prepared for any future infectious disease outbreaks. As the […]
3D Printed Housing
On November 14, 2021, a record setting amount of rain fell over Merritt BC causing the loss of critical infrastructure and prompting the evacuation of the entire city on the morning of November 15, 2021. Half of the residents began returning home approximately one week following the event. To date, there are still 271 homes […]
Community Recovery – Merritt 2022 “Thank Your Neighbour Day
November 2021, Southern British Columbia receives a weather alert of 3 atmospheric rivers hitting the coastal province over 2 days. There is little warning of the potential severity of the event but by morning, provincial and municipal authorities decide to open their EOC’s. Water flows in the region are recorded as the largest on record […]
Water Sector Preparedness
After 9-11, security mitigation and preparedness was high on the list of most critical infrastructure owners, and the water sector was no exception. Here in Canada, the move had already begun to develop a national critical infrastructure framework and national database that water utilities, both public and private, could use to access and share information […]
