CARSTAIRS - Town council has tabled a proposal to have the municipality participate in a grant application for the multi-stakeholder Mountain View Region Emergency Management Framework (MVREMF) partnership proposal.
"We just want a little more information on the project so we know what we are actually going to be voting on," said mayor Lance Colby. "We are requesting more information and then see how that fits into everything."
Area towns have created a partnership to develop a long-term plan for the region based on sharing planning documents, technology, training and pooling of resources to support future emergency situations, council heard.
“The partnering municipalities and regional partners all have lessons that were learned during the pandemic and developing long-term plans for therein that is founded on identification of gaps, shared planning documents, polling tools and resources to support future emergency situations,” administration said in a briefing note to council.
The partnership future activities could include “conducting facilitated debriefs to capture lessons learned, gaps, areas of improved and best practices with municipal partners and key emergency response stakeholders” and “integrate emergency preparedness plans including business continuity, emergency social services, and incident response plans created to respond to area specific hazards such as a pandemic.”
The partnership would also see the training of staff and key emergency responders on information technology tools that will support and integrate approach to manage localized disasters.
As the spearheading municipality, the Town of Olds has requested area municipal councils in the partnership pass a resolution or motion supporting participation in the project, in accordance with the requirements of the grant application.
Carstairs council passed a motion at the Jan. 11 council meeting to have the matter tabled until a future council meeting, and instructed administration to bring back more information regarding the proposal.
