In the event of an emergency...

Interoperability isn't a word that rolls off the tongue, but in a major emergency, it could be the difference between life and death.

The term refers to the ability of emergency personnel to communicate with each other and co-ordinate a response in case of a major fire, flood or other disaster.

Tuesday, firefighters, police and other government officials met at the Radisson Hotel in Sudbury to hear a presentation from the Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group (CITIG).

It's an independent organization that advocates a joint response to emergencies on the local, provincial, national and international levels. Representatives are touring Canada to inform local emergency personnel about CITIG and to learn from them what their emergency co-ordination plans are and what they need.

Not surprisingly, communication is the biggest single factor on the minds of emergency crews.

“It's absolutely vital that the folks on the ground are able to communicate with each other,” said Deputy Chief Al Lekun, of the Greater Sudbury Police Service. “That doesn't just happen. It has to be co-ordinated.

“Today's session is about assessing where we are today and making plans for the future.”

To that end, the federal government has designated the 700 MHZ band on the broadband spectrum for public safety use. Crews have traditionally operated on what's known as the narrowband, which, as its name implies, has limitations in terms of capacity and speed.

Its use is generally limited to radio broadcasts and pagers. Broadband will allow communication across a much broader range of frequencies at the same time. So, for example, police could transmit information on a Blackberry or iPhone or upload information to the Internet. What's more, expensive equipment could be replaced by much simpler tools.

“All the traditional communications equipment could be replaced with an iPad or a tablet,” said Lance Valcour, a retired Ottawa police officer who is now CITIG's executive director.

By gaining access to broadband, emergency responders will have access to a much greater range of communication, he said. They can also monitor and post on social media, which can alert the world to emergencies even before emergency crews.

Michael Sullivan, division chief with the Ottawa Fire Service, said such technology has major implications.

“If someone sends us a cellphone pic of an accident, the technology exits to stamp that photo with location information,” Sullivan said. “It will allow mission-critical information to flow in real time.”

Tim Beadman, Greater Sudbury's chief of emergency services, said he isn't sure whether responders in Sudbury can locate an accident scene from a cellphone pic.

But he says Sudbury is ahead on many fronts, such as integrated communication. Police and fire emergency calls already go to the same 911 centre. The next goal is to integrate ambulance and paramedic crews, something that's complicated because those are provincial agencies.

“City council has authorized us to look at an integrated dispatch service that combines all three services into one,” Beadman said. “We're preparing a business plan for council and for the province.”

“It's more than just a radio … It's about developing policies together. It's about training together.”

The focus has to be big picture, he said, rather than each agency developing a plan on its own.

“Say for example, if you had a flood. Who feels the aftereffects of the flood? The public. We had that horrible flood (in 2009). We were able to handle the emergency. But we need different agencies to take over at different times. It becomes a matter for public works, for the Red Cross … So that continuum has to be in place.”

Also working in Greater Sudbury's favour is the training centre housed at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre in Azlida, which offers training programs on how to respond to an emergency.

The city has specific plans on how to deal with a train or mining emergency, for example. Beadman says businesses have trained at the centre, something that will help in co-ordinating a response with city crews in the event of a disaster.

“Private industry is huge in this community,” he said. “And we have them training and doing (preparedness) exercises over the last couple of years. So that's working well.”

The next step is signing mutual aid agreements with businesses who may have resources not available to local governments in the event of a crisis.

Valcour cited such recent events as the B.C. wildfires, the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots and the school shooting at Dawson College in Montreal as examples where better planning and tools could have made a difference.

“We need a national strategy,” Valcour said.

The goal of Tuesday's forum, he said, was to move that process along, as well as raise awareness of what CITIG is and what it does.

Technology aside, CITIG has created a continuum to give towns and cities a way to judge exactly where their emergency plans rate on the interoperability scale, and where they need to improve. It includes five criteria: governance, standard operating procedures, technology, training and exercises and usage.

While all cities and towns must have an emergency plan in place, CITIG seeks to create a standard for all communities to reach when responding to a crisis, as well as planning a regional, provincial and national response to a crisis.

For more information, go to CITIG.ca.

Posted by Arron Pickard