St. Albert city council has signed off on updates to a regional mutual aid agreement between 22 municipalities that dictates how each community can ask for assistance and resources in the case of a disaster or emergency.
The agreement, called the Capital Region Emergency Preparedness Partnership (CREPP) has been in place since 2007, and covers many municipalities in the area, including Edmonton, Strathcona County, Sturgeon County, Morinville, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, St. Albert, and more.
Coun. Mike Killick likened the CREPP agreement to the city having an emergency contacts list.
“We do this in our daily lives — you have a list of emergency contacts and what they're going to be contacted for — so we ... absolutely want to have it documented not only for when we need to call on help, but also so that when another municipality around us needs to give us a call,” Killick said.
“Hopefully we never have to get into that situation, but certainly with the wildfire situation down in Kelowna and the Northwest Territories, and in Ontario as well, we know that emergencies or emergency situations are changing around us, climate change is there and we can't predict what's going to happen in the future.”
A report to council written by the city's manager of emergency management, Mark Pickford, said recent changes to provincial legislation and an overall need to modernize the agreement led to member municipalities creating an updated version of the agreement, which city council approved unanimously on Aug. 29.
“The updated agreement provides alignment with provincial requirements and municipal needs, including clarity on how to request assistance, obligations, and the right of denial, as well as identifying which municipal representatives may request or respond to, a request for assistance,” Pickford wrote.
“Understanding that any community may require external assistance when threatened or affected by an incident or disaster ... the intent of the agreement is to provide an avenue to quickly access emergency and disaster assistance, should it be needed.”
Pickford's report says one example of the agreement being used in recent years was the 2016 wildfires in Parkland County, specifically the Duffield and Tomahawk hamlets.
“The agreement allowed for rapid approval of personnel, equipment, and facilities to assist the requesting municipality in combating incidents, emergencies, and disasters,” Pickford wrote of the 2016 fires.
“Recent disasters in Alberta have demonstrated that no municipality has the required people, equipment, or facilities to respond to an incident or disaster.”
Coun. Ken MacKay, speaking as deputy mayor on behalf of Mayor Cathy Heron, agreed the timing of the agreement update was fitting, given the province's record-breaking wildfire season this year, as well as the ongoing wildfires in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia.
“You can see that these occurrences or incidents are certainly more frequent than they have been in the past, and I think it's very fortuitous that we (modernize the agreement) because when these events happen, they're usually very large and they overwhelm our community's ability to respond alone,” he said.
MacKay also pointed to the 2021 Citadel Mews fire in St. Albert as a good example of what having an agreement like CREPP can do, as fire crews from Edmonton, Morinville, Strathcona County, and Spruce Grove responded to the fire, along with local resources.
Likewise, Coun. Natalie Joly said she thinks the CREPP agreement shows the value of having positive inter-municipal relationships, “especially in light of expected increases in extreme weather events that could trigger the need for mutual aid requests.”
As well, Coun. Wes Brodhead mutual aid agreements like CREPP are “critically important.”
“Not everybody has the resources to manage a significant crisis event on their own, but collectively we certainly can pool resources and manage a crisis much better,” Brodhead said. “These mutual aid agreements are critically important because it defines in advance the context in which aid will be given and requested.”
“Many hands make light work, but many resources also make light work.”
