2019 Speakers – Toronto North CAER

Nov 13

November 13, 2019

By TNCAER 2019 Speakers

Jennifer Threndyle from WSPS made a presentation on Violence and Harassment. She defined workplace violence and workplace harassment. She outlined the need to prepare policies to prevent violence and harassment including:

Developing and maintaining programs to implement the policies.
Assessing the risks of workplace violence based on the nature of the workplace and type of work.
Developing measures and procedures to control the risks.
Taking reasonable precautions to protect workers who are at risk of physical injury.
Alerting certain workers to the risk of workplace violence from persons with a history of violent behaviour.

The WSPS is able to complete a Workplace Violence Risk Assessment specific to a workplace, assist in developing a program and present an awareness session. At the end of the presentation, Jennifer mentioned various online resources such as the WSPS Workplace Violence & Harassment Toolbox; MLTSD Resources and the Excellent Program which replaces all other Health & Safety Rebate programs.

Sep 11

September 11, 2019

By TNCAER 2019 Speakers

Poonam Chodha of Amazon toured the CAER group around the Amazon Fulfillment Centre in Brampton. The Brampton Fulfillment Center is an 80,000 sq. ft. facility on 4 floors which services the Canadian market from Brampton. The operations are made up of inbound and outbound departments. Inbound receives products from hundreds of vendors. Once received, these products become available on the Amazon website to order. Outbound operations, fulfills customer orders by picking, packing and shipping customer orders within specific and tight deadlines. The group toured the facility seeing robots, belt conveyors, packing stations and the shipping of the outgoing goods.

May 08

May 8, 2019

By TNCAER 2019 Speakers

Sat Anand of Anco Chemicals made a presentation called “E2 Planning” at the CANECT Conference. E2 planning has 4 steps: prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

Prevention involves: identifying in advance the risks, studying past emergencies, predicting scenarios, containing spills, operating procedures, preventive maintenance, facility design, operator competence, leak detection/alarms, incident investigation and compliance to standards. Prevention is essential for reducing the frequency and severity of E2 through preventive action, corrective action and risks managed. Prevention success stories should be prepared. A risk management program should be implemented in advance including process design and operation, training and smooth facility operation. RMP is far less expensive than dealing with the human health problems and environmental damage.

A risk management program includes: hazard identification, risk analysis, reduction of risk and response plans. Preparedness means involving first responders and nearby stakeholders, communicating risk and controls to surrounding facilities, communities and the public. Providing adequate resources to responders including mutual aid agreements, maintaining equipment, testing the plan and informing the public. Preparedness success stories should be prepared.

Quick and effective response relies on sound planning, pre-established partnerships and regular testing. Effective response includes quick activation of the plan, adequate resource mobilization, rapid assessment of the emergency, notification to first responders and alerting public, evacuation, accounting for personnel and adequate reporting. Partners include: other industries, communities, local organizations and government.

Recovery means restoration of environmental damage during the emergency. The best method is to discuss among all involved parties, to assess the damage and agree on a restoration plan. The objective of recovery is to provide sufficient direction to minimize recovery time and reduce impacts. The longer the recovery takes, the higher the ultimate cost.

Sharon Walker of Vaughan Emergency Planning made a presentation at the CANECT conference on Planning E2 Exercises. The first step is to contact municipality for assistance and participation in exercise. Business must decide when to hold an exercise, weather considerations, time of day and implications to neighbouring industries/businesses. They must choose the types of exercise (notification, case study, table top, simulation cell and field exercise). When planning the exercise you do need to: know your goals and objectives; what you plan to achieve; what are you exercising (part of the plan or the whole plan); and is the training and practice for staff or the evaluation of relevance and effectiveness of the plan. She suggested to create a 5 year schedule to work up to the field exercise. The Exercise Planning Objectives should be simple, measurable, achievable, realistic and time specific. To develop your exercise: create a scenario, determine the scale or size of the incident, the internal and external participants and establish a planning team.

When Creating a Scenario she said to keep it real, based on risk assessment, painting a picture with words and avoid creating an Armageddon. She suggested using safety videos from the Chemical Safety Board http://www.csb.gov/videos/

Pre-Exercise Training includes building mini scenarios, creating hands on training activities and a walk-about. When conducting the exercise you should stay on schedule, control access to the site, ensure necessary resources are available, use props to simulate the incident, clearly identify Evaluator and Observers. Remember that Developers and Controllers do not actively participate and be prepared for real incidents during the exercise.

The Evaluation includes debriefing all participants. Evaluations should be confidential. Questions include: What went well? What could be done better? What do we need? What did you learn? After the evaluation an Action Report containing action items should put together.

Mar 20

March 20, 2019

By TNCAER 2019 Speakers

Mitchell Gibbs of First Response Environmental made a presentation: “The Deadly Environmental Malibu Fire”. Mitchell showed a news video early on in the Malibu Wildfire. He talked about the mixed messages on evacuations, the 18,000 structures that were burned over 250,000 acres and the 89 lives lost. He said that most of the deaths were inside vehicles attempting to leave the area late. 250,000 people were successfully evacuated. First Response dealt with the clean up afterwards. He mentioned that Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) were available to help with evacuation, but were not recognized by local official and utilized.

Mitchell estimated that it cost $150,000 to clean up each house. LA County Fire and the US EPA paid for the initial clean up and teams like First Response complete the cleanup. Another issue during the fire was the decommissioned nuclear testing facility (Santa Susana Field Laboratory) where the soil was contaminated and nuclear waste was stored had been partially burned. After the fire, flooding and landslides were an issue since there was no vegetation remaining, 14,000 home were leveled and Pacific Gas & Electric & several insurance companies went bankrupt.

Mitchell wrote a book on the fire.

Sharon Walker of Vaughan Emergency Planning made a presentation called “Exercise Loco Motive”. This was the City of Vaughan’s annual exercise. The objectives were to practice: roles & responsibilities; emergency notification procedures; incident assessment & action planning; coordination, communication & interoperability; using Dashboard; implementing the Drinking Water Emergency Plan; identifying continuous improvements to plans & procedures; and compliance with the Emergency Management & Civil Protection Act.

The scenario was a tanker hit by a train which involved a derailment, fire, chlorine release, helicopter crash and drinking water issues. The exercise involved both CN and Alectra. The methodology was calling in with issues, with 2 shift changes and mock media briefings.

The lessons learned was that: communication was a strength; Dashboard worked well (a training session before the exercise worked); maps and GIS are valuable tools; training staff to keep their briefings short; and situational awareness.

What could be done better: need better audio visuals; drone view from above was great for mapping and video feeds; message; common maps approval needed; updating dashboard; mapping and video feeds further development; procurement form process; and streamline communication.

Recommendations: install audio-video systems in the EOC; purchase IMS colored vests; sections update procedures; investigate mapping software; develop more efficient public alerting; and on-going training.

Jan 23

January 23, 2019

By TNCAER 2019 Speakers

Ryan Wheeler of Trans-Northern Pipelines made a presentation: “Improving Fire Safety and Emergency Preparedness at Trans-Northern Pipeline Terminals”. He outlined several Trans-Northern exercises including an annual exercise in Trenton and 4 table tops. They prepare various emergency scenarios and review tactical response plans and share GIS data. Facility specific plans are undertaken to deal with loss of containment and fire scenarios.

Ryan mentioned several changes and upgrades including: working to upgrade fire pre-plans; outreach to smaller Fire Departments; adding 3rd party support services; foam & resupply resources; emergency product movements; and suppression equipment and response.

Trans-Northern did fire preparedness sessions at GTAA, Farran’s Point and Calgary Airport. In 2019, Trans-Northern plans to revise fire pre-plans and facility response plans, add sessions, add site visits for firefighters and identify different contractors and consultants. The Trans-Northern Notification phone number is 1-800-361-0608.

Sat Anand of Anco Chemicals made a presentation called “Ammonia Exercise”. This was on a Table Top Ammonia Exercise at Anco Chemicals. Sat overviewed ammonia’s properties. Office staff at Anco were asked questions about safety procedures. Sat outlined the scenario that there was a crack on top of a drum. He talked about the PPE requirements for ammonia.