Lacombe County joins Emergency Management Logistics Canada
CHRISTI ALBERS-MANICKE / Lacombe Express Article
Lacombe County will be one of the first to join a new online platform that connects Emergency Management Operators (like municipal governments) with vendors across the country.
The service enables them to find everything they need in an emergency, ranging from blankets to helicopters. This will mean faster and more efficient response times.
“We have people in logistics roles that hire contractors and source vendors, so they have that internal knowledge. But sometimes, we need them to look for something they don’t normally source. This directory supplements the information we already have, and closes the gaps in what I would call common knowledge,” says Drayton Bussiere, County Fire Chief and Director of Emergency Management for Lacombe County.
Emergency Management Logistics Canada (EMLCanada) is Canada’s first and only emergency management logistics platform that connects emergency management organizations (EMOs) directly with product and service vendors across Canada to improve emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. Lacombe County is one of the first centres to go with the platform, Red Deer County, The City of Red Deer and Village of Delburne have also joined.
“EMLCanada has created a national logistics database to make it easy for emergency management organizations to find what they need, when they need it,” said co-founder Scott Cameron. The open platform allows stakeholders to easily find vendors and services, share information, build relationships, and enhance emergency response while saving critical time and money.
His personal introduction to emergency management was during the Pine Lake Tornado in 2000 while he was working as the Executive Director of United Way of Central Alberta.
He coordinated a local committee to ensure a fair and equitable distribution process and since then Scott has since been deployed to a number of disaster situations including local floods and toxic spills, and wildfires in northern Alberta.
Emergency Management Logistics is Canada’s first and only emergency management logistics platform.