The RMWB will initiate a State of Local Emergency once the provincial one ends at midnight tonight. It will be effective for seven days starting July 1, with an evaluation required in order to extend it.
Mayor Melissa Blake said it is likely the State of Local Emergency will last two weeks, long enough to allow for a powering down of the Regional Emergency Operations Centre over time and a transition period for the dozens of people working there.
“We are looking at a transitions from our Provincial State of Emergency and going back to where we were May 1 and there’s good purpose for it,” she said. “It has nothing to do with fearful or terrifying events that were experienced back when we did this in the early part of May, this is, in fact, about having the ability to transition the resources that we have within our Regional Emergency Operations Centre over to the Wood Buffalo Recovery Committee.”
She said there is a wealth of knowledge and expertise that could be lost if REOC were to disband immediately on July 1 and they want to ensure that doesn’t happen and that the community continues to benefit from these skilled people.
“The safety of our residents is the top priority for Council and this next step is being initiated to ensure the resources needed remain in place until the Recovery Committee is fully operational,” said Mayor Melissa Blake.
The goal is to have the people working at REOC continue to bring their expertise to the recovery and rebuild of our community. Some of the people who’ve been working in REOC will likely transition over to the Recovery Task Force which will operate out of the 5th floor of the Jubilee Centre.
The municipality said it’s important for people to know there is nothing to fear and that this won’t affect their daily lives, which will go on the way they have since re-entry began.
Dale Bendfeld, Acting Director of Emergency Management, explained that while there are powers granted to the municipality in a State of Local Emergency, many of them will not be used. They will be able to restrict access to some areas, a power already granted to the municipality by the controlled access by-law it passed earlier this month, and will benefit from the support of the province.
Bendfeld said the benefit of this move is to keep the horsepower of all these experts under the hood while the municipality takes over driving the car from the province.
