No matter where you live, knowing what threats your community may face can only be a good thing. Residents across the province will be learning what those threats are in the coming months as per a government regulation due before summer.
At the recent Tay Township regular council meeting, residents were treated to a community risk assessment (CRA) presentation by Bill Lorimer of the Loomex Group.
Accompanied by a slideshow and 116-page report, Lorimer began by stating that all municipalities and fire departments must conduct the CRA as part of Ontario Regulation 378/18, and explained the assessment was from a fire services perspective.
Identified in the report were 12 public safety risks ranked from high to low, with severe weather incidents (120) and critical infrastructure failure (96) as high risk at the top for Tay, and localized flooding (40) and grass/wildland fire (36) as low risk at the bottom.
“In the context of a CRA, the risk is determined by evaluating the threats, likelihood, and consequence levels; those two are big factors with a CRA,” stated Lorimer.
To gauge the risks, a two-dimensional risk level matrix for likelihood (from rare to certain) and consequences (from insignificant to catastrophic) allowed the Loomex Group to place the listed threats, and recommend plans for risk treatment which the Tay Township fire department could implement accordingly.
As for the plans recommended for the two high risk items they were: providing public education on severe weather events for residents to know what to do before, during, and after an emergency; and for critical infrastructure failure the plan was to provide public education on 72-hour emergency kit usage while offering applicable services.
Other top-ranking moderate risks included human health emergency (90), and a three-way tie (84) between fire in residential occupancy, fire in assembly occupancy, and remote area rescue.
Lorimer suggested the CRA be reviewed and updated annually, and recommended the township develop a process to collect and maintain data so the CRA would remain current as well as be useable for future strategic planning development.
When asked by council if Shawn Aymer, the township's general manager of protective and development services/fire chief, had anything to add, Aymer replied that the recent budget would help move the recommendations forward.
“Most of these items you see today are public education related, and we’re already incorporating that into our day-to-day activities,” stated Aymer.
Mayor Ted Walker thanked Lorimer for the presentation, and noted the timeliness of the report as an 18-hour power outage had occurred in early April which impacted 1,800 residents in Port McNicoll.
“There are a lot of things that are there, that sometimes you think they’ll never happen — but they do happen,” said Walker. “When they do, being prepared and having everything in place makes such a huge difference.”
At the start of the evening and with a large audience, Walker noted that NT Power president and CEO Ysni Semsedini was in attendance and led a round of appreciative applause for the company, its hydro crews, municipal staff, local volunteers, and residents who came together through the recent outage.
Emergency planning information for a 72-hour event is available on the fire and emergency services page of the Tay Township website.
The Loomex Group community risk assessment report, including slideshow presentation, can be found on the agenda page on the Tay Township website.