Emergency Management (EM) delivers three fundamental objectives:
- plan for emergencies of scale
- respond to calamities
- manage a recovery phase
EM includes the City of Medicine Hat, Town of Redcliff and Cypress County. The regionalized structure enables the communities to share resources while offering centralized leadership and management to avoid duplications within the geographical area.
Council Emergency Management Committee
The Council Emergency Management Committee has the responsibility of designating a Director of Emergency Management and mandating his/her responsibilities. The Director is responsible for:
- ensuring that risk analysis are conducted
- a mobilization plan is crafted and maintained
- regular planning meetings are scheduled
- the plan is exercised routinely.
Regional Emergency Response Plan
The entire process and readiness of EM is compiled in a series of plans. The Regional Emergency Response Plan (RERP) is the master document developed by various Agencies such as Police, Fire, Municipal Works, Emergency Social Services and Public Information. The Director and the Chiefs of the various essential services agencies meet on a quarterly basis to discuss and refine plans.
Volunteers
Intricately tied to the planning and response groups are various volunteers such as Red Cross, the Salvation Army and an array of community support groups. Also key to the structure is Alberta Health Services and local industries. Exercises are planned and conducted on a two-year cycle to confirm and validate plan effectiveness. The exercises also serve the purpose of evaluating the suitability of EM infrastructure, communications, and resource availability.
