Jasper’s emergency responders are on the same page, after an interagency emergency planning meeting to discuss the community’s emergency response plan, May 7.
The meeting attracted representatives from all of the town’s major players—Parks Canada, the municipality, the fire department, RCMP, bylaw, Canadian National Railway and ATCO—all of whom gathered around a table to discuss the plan to ensure the community is prepared in the case of a major disaster.
“It’s an annual meeting,” said Fire Chief Greg Van Tighem. “The whole goal is just to get people around the table to give them a Reader’s Digest version of the emergency plan in Jasper.”
Those face-to-face meetings are important, he said, because not only does it ensure everyone’s working from the same plan, it also allows each of the responders to network and get to know the people they’ll be working with if a disaster does strike.
“In my mind,” said Van Tighem, “if we get them around the table networking and get them familiar, so everyone knows each other, we have a big advantage in a big disaster, it makes it that much easier for us to work together under stress.”
In some communities, there are rifts between agencies—most commonly fire departments and ambulance services—that can create issues during an emergency response, said Van Tighem.
“My philosophy is nothing changes in a disaster.
“If there’s an underlying relationship issue today ... and you get a huge event or a big community-wide disaster and you don’t have positive relationships, it carries over to the disaster and as a result it will negatively affect the outcome.”
So, he said, by annually getting everyone together to review the plan, agencies are given the opportunity to forge those positive relationships and connections with one another, ensuring a smooth response.
The meeting also allowed for each of the agencies to outline exactly what it is that they do and what their role would be in the case of an emergency.
“It was a good learning experience for everybody,” said Van Tighem. “Everybody now has a good understanding of what the other agencies can do and will do.”
Nicole Veerman
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