The City of Lloydminster council heard some updates regarding their emergency management bylaw.
The bylaw creates structure and a framework for the Lloydminster Emergency Management Program. The program is required to create mitigation and preparedness efforts throughout the municipality to respond to and recover from any hazard onset.
“Let’s say there was something that happened at the refinery or something that happened at the ADM plant and it was causing an environmental hazard or a hazard to the community that we could gather the people together to make an emergency response team and have a plan in place to make sure the community and the people in the City of Lloydminster are safe,” said Deputy Mayor David Lopez.
A state of local emergency can be declared only when council believes the powers of the minister under the Emergency Management Act are required and essential to provide life safety, property conservation or incident scene stablilization.
Coun. Michele Charles Gustafson asked for clarity from administration regarding newly introduced special powers in the bylaw.
“The Emergency Management Act updates through Bill 21, none of the special powers of the minister were updated. We’re just including them in our bylaw for transparency. The special powers are given granted to a municipality when a state of local emergency is declared,” said Andrew DeGruchy, senior manager, public safety.
He explains what the additional powers may be used for.
“For when a hazard is overwhelming its current structure and current resources. They’re additional powers we may utilize to try to contain the emergency that’s ongoing,” said DeGruchy.
Some key changes to the bylaw include the updated appointment of the director of emergency management and deputies. As well as, the introduction of the Alberta Incident Management System as the Command, Control, and Coordination structure that the city will utilize throughout a hazard response.
An emergency management agency will also meet twice a year reporting the status of the city’s emergency management program.
Council received the bylaw as information and it will return to a future council meeting for decision.
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