(File Photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Emergency Planning

Melfort City Council passes new Emergency Planning Bylaw

May 6, 2020 | 3:00 PM

The City of Melfort officially passed a new Emergency Planning Bylaw on Monday at their Regular Council Meeting.

The bylaw formally establishes an organization for emergencies in Melfort. It provides a framework for a structure of committees and processes in case of a major emergency in the city. Director of Protective Services Shaun Stewart said there’s a lot of work that goes into a bylaw like this and it takes a lot of cooperation.

“It’s not just within City Hall,” he said. “But it’s also with members out in the public, and businesses that in a time of need are going to bring different kinds of equipment say, to us or be able help us out with transportation or housing or whatever.”

The bylaw would come into play in either a widespread emergency, or a disaster in the City of Melfort. In the bylaw, a disaster is described as, “a widespread or severe emergency that destabilizes the local community, or an event that results in serious harm to the health, safety, and welfare of the people” of Melfort. While an emergency is described in the bylaw as “a serious, unexpected and dangerous situation requiring immediate action or coordination of action.”

“Major impacts to a city that isn’t going to be there for four hours,” Stewart said. “This is something that’s going to go on for a while, a train derailment that’s 24, 48, 72 hours, or longer that’s in effect.”

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Numerous individuals and groups are part of the various committees. A number of designates come from the City of Melfort staff, while there’s also representation from groups such as school divisions, and non-government organizations as they would work together to make a plan and execute it in the case of an emergency.

When an emergency or disaster is present, city council would get together and enact the bylaw, and declare a local state of emergency. Local media would be alerted and the city would also alert the public through their streams.

Now that the bylaw is passed, Stewart said he will start making communication with the public about the bylaw, and contacting people about their roles within the bylaw. However, that likely won’t happen until the COVID-19 pandemic is a little bit more supressed.

“Together we can get a fantastic emergency response plan for the city,” Stewart said.

This is not the first Emergency Planning bylaw for the city. Stewart said the main change with this one and the previous is lots of changes to the wording to reflect other bylaws as well as The Cities Act.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6