Given the recent reports regarding safety on Highway 63 and the need to improve emergency services, Athabasca County Council discussed the issue at their meeting on July 9 and unanimously agreed to have administration prepare a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a two-person emergency response team along the highway.
For numerous decades Athabasca County has been given the challenge of responding to emergency road rescue on the dangerous highway, but over time as the boom in Fort McMurray continued at a steady pace, providing this service became more difficult. An administrative report was presented to council with background information and possible temporary plans as they begin to look at more long-term solutions for the future.
In the report by protective services director Ron Jackson, it was noted that one of the biggest concerns was effective response time to motor vehicle collisions on Highway 63 and the potential distances required by the first response agency to get to the scene. Ideally fire services/road resource should respond from their traditional locations, including Wandering River, to designated response zones. Response areas are based on a 1.6-minute per kilometre ground response formula, which translates to approximately 45 minutes. Currently there is no response team at Wandering River given the lack of volunteers capable, but even if there was a response unit, council was informed that there is still a segment of highway that cannot be reached in a reasonable time frame.
In order to provide the best response to emergencies possible, response scenario would include a combination of ground and air rescue units, which would mean the establishment of a coordinated Air Rescue Technical Team (ARTT) via contracted or stand-by service that would be backed up by STARS. The ideal and more cost effective solution would be to expand current placement of STARS into Fort McMurray.
A one-time conditional grant of $325,000 and a one-time conditional grant of $175,000 were granted to the County in the fall of 2011 to support regional first response safety and response capabilities while developing a long-term shared growth strategy for the region. A portion of funds was provided to support recruitment of trained personnel to respond to emergencies along Highway 63. In addition to the grants, the county has committed $500,000 over five years to enable road rescue services.
Presently, the priority for county council is to focus on the re-establishment of some level of service out of Wandering River that will reduce initial response time and reduce unnecessary responses from other volunteer fire/rescue departments. The team would respond to accidents along the highway, helping to alleviate pressure on nearby volunteer fire departments like Grassland and Boyle.
In his report to council, Jackson stated that the team “would be responsible for first response to any motor vehicle incident along Highway 63 to assess the situation, secure the scene and contact the support agencies required.”
Through a group of coordinated discussions with Grassland, Boyle and Plamondon Fire Rescuedepartments, a potential model of service provision may be achievable based on the current funding available. This model can be achieved in two ways; either governed in-house or contracted to an existing emergency services provider.
In the report to council, a proposed service model had been submitted to the county from Trans-Care Rescue to implement a two-man initial response team model on a one-year pilot basis. During the meeting, council ultimately decided to put out a special RFP for other agencies to provide a two-man initial response model managed by a contract provider for a one-year basis.
