The Alberta government is revamping its emergency alert program, and already members of the Jasper municipality have received training on how to better warn citizens in the event of an emergency. 

The Alberta Emergency Response program is the new name for the alert. It replaces the Alberta Emergency Public Warning System that was implemented back in 1992, according to Greg Van Tighem, fire chief and emergency services director for the Municipality of Jasper. 

The idea of the original program was to get information out to the public as quickly as possible through TV and radio. Each town in Alberta had three or four people who underwent a three-hour training course and were qualified to call in to report an emergency. 

The new alert system will accomplish the same things, however the process will be streamlined.

“It’s a big improvement on the old system,” Van Tighem said. 

Now, the alert will reach residents faster than it did before. It is more reliable and can partner with other nearby communities in case they are affected by the event. 

In Jasper, the first three people have already undergone the training course to operate the new system; Van Tighem, Director of Corporate and Legislative Services Verne Balding, and Manager of Utilities Doug Rodwell. Communications Officer Christine Nadon and Deputy Fire Chief Don Smith will soon take the course as well, bringing the number to five. 

The warning system will use various media outlets, and can even have access to telephones to call people if necessary. 

“It’s based on the urgency or severity of the situation,” Van Tighem said. 

The severity is either critical or an information alert. Some examples of critical incidents are an aircraft crash, large urban or wild fire, spread of infectious disease and dangerous or deadly water conditions. 

In those situations, a critical alert would interrupt TV and radio broadcasting to deliver a message. Then, on the ground in Jasper a number of different ways of reaching people would be undertaken. Van Tighem said they could go door to door to inform residents, or sound alarms to make residents aware of the situation. 

“The best thing to do is to use as many avenues as possible to spread that (message) out,” he said. 

While on the ground measures are extremely helpful in informing residents, Van Tighem believes the alert system can reach many more people in a short amount of time. 

“It’s probably the biggest player, because it’s got the capacity to get out to the media.”

The alerts will tell residents what the situation is and what to do to keep themselves safe. Social media is another aspect of the program that can spread information, however people must be a member of the particular Facebook group to receive alerts that way. 

An information alert would be like a press release that went out to media, who can choose to broadcast it or not. Examples would be a dangerous animal in the area, blood or food shortages or transportation issues such as road closures. 

“They’re not life threatening,” Van Tighem said. The information alerts would depend on the individual situation, but Van Tighem said that extreme road conditions is something Jasper may be informed of through the new system. “We are subject to more severe road conditions, so that’s a possibility.”

The sharing of information between communities is a great new aspect of Alberta Emergency Response. If something were to happen in Hinton that could effect Jasper, the two towns can add information to the same bulletin, however they can’t override one that has already been put out. 

The program is always monitored by the provincial government. 

Van Tighem said that Jasper luckily never had to use the original emergency alert program, but a town like Slave Lake may have issued alerts during the recent wildfires in that region. 

“That would be a perfect example,” Van Tighem said of the Slave Lake disaster. 

On Aug. 24, a member of the Alberta Management Agency will be in Jasper to speak about the Slave Lake fire response. There will be a slideshow and presentation at the Emergency Services Building from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.