AEMA FESTI

FESTI (Fire and Emergency Services Training Initiative) is AEMA's 2008 rethinking of how SAR and other training is done.

2008-11-22 Southern Region Consultation
On behalf of Pincher Creek SAR, I attended the Alberta Emergency Management Agency and SAR Alberta consultation in Lethbridge today (Sat 2008-11-22). The meeting was well attended, with about 20 people there from LASARA, CSDA, Vulcan SAR, SEASAR, ACRO, SAR Alberta and AEMA.

This meeting had very short notice, in part because of deadlines they are facing and their desire to accommodate SAR Alberta. They committed to better notice in the future.

AEMA has been looking at several disciplines: Fire, Emergency Management/Disaster Services, Disaster Social Services, SAR, and Emergency Amateur Radio. For each one it wants to develop a process that provides accreditation, certification and standards. And it wants to support delivery of training.

The meeting was facilitated by Fred Tyrell, on secondment from Community Development and was very well handled. Fred led us through a discussion of
 * the strengths of the current training
 * the weaknesses
 * how it can be improved
 * what we want from SAR Alberta related to training, operations, and admin

There were many good ideas that came from this discussion. Meeting notes will be distributed in a couple of weeks. I'll forward them when I get them.

SAR Alberta will be using the input in its Standards Committee and hopefully the board.

AEMA expects to establish a working group in February to plan how accreditation and certification would work for SAR. Spence Sample will begin compiling his report in the summer and deliver it in the fall of 2009. At that point it will go before the provincial cabinet for approval.

The meeting was well worth attending for its own sake. Several of the ideas generated can be undertaken without government support. The facilitation that supported this discussion was excellent. AEMA, a reformulated organization of about a year and half, has yet to deliver much new to the SAR community. It's unclear whether these consultations will have a real impact. However there is potential for very good things. I recommend Pincher SAR stays involved.

--Brett Wuth

2008-12-11 Notes from consultation received

 * Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:57:40 -0700
 * Message-ID: <4548C2E9FC9A0748846342500591D2990A789DA7@EDM-GOA-EXCC-3A.goa.ds.gov.ab.ca>
 * From: "Fred Tyrrell" 
 * Subject: Search & Rescue Consultations

Good morning, I am pleased to provide you, on behalf of both SAR Alberta and the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, the full set of notes from the recent series of first-round consultations with the search and rescue community in Alberta. These consultations were driven, on our part, by the Fire and Emergency Services Training Initiative headed by Spence Sample.

The notes are broken down by the community in which the sessions were held. If you wish any clarification of a point that was recorded, feel free to contact Spence Sample (Spence.sample@gov.ab.ca), Cindy Heselton (sarasouthcentraldirector@yahoo.ca) or me. For further information on the Initiative, contact Spence. For further information on the SAR Alberta Standards Committee, contact Cindy.

We will endeavor to keep you up to date as these projects move forward.

Fred Tyrrell

Manager, Stakeholder Relations

Alberta Emergency Management Agency

See notes: http://pcsar.webhop.org/AEMA-FESTI-2008-11-Workshop-Notes.pdf