Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO 07-05PICKERING REPORT TO COUNCIL Report Number: CAO 07-05 Date: February 24, 2005 From: Everett Buntsma (Acting) Chief Administrative Officer Subject: Request for Funding Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team (OVERT) - File: F-4130-001-05 Recommendation: 1. That Report CAO 07-05 regarding a request for funding from OVERT be received and forwarded to the Region of Durham and The Durham Police Services Board; and 2. That Council support the good work of OVERT and encourages Regional Council to support financially the efforts of OVERT in Durham Region; and 3. That a copy of this recommendation be forwarded to: The Honourable Monte Kwinter, Minister of Correctional Services and Community Safety. Wayne Arthurs, MPP - Ajax-Pickering-Uxbridge. Executive Summary: The City has received a formal request (attached) from OVERT to provide funding in the amount of 7.5 cents per resident (approx. $7,500) to join the OVERT Municipal Partnership Program. OVERT (Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team) is an organization that assists, upon request, in numerous emergency situations. OVERT members are skilled and trained to respond for local emergencies where local resources are over-extended or unable to respond in a timely fashion. City staff has reviewed the attached information and recommend that funding assistance should be sought from the upper tier government as part of the Durham Emergency Management Office. It should be noted that most incidents requiring OVERT assistance would be of a nature coordinated by Durham Police Service resources. For this reason we also recommend that the Durham Police Services Board consider the request. Report CAO 07-05 Subject: Request for Funding (OVERT) Date: February 24, 2005 Page 2 Financial Implications: N/A Background: OVERT is a Durham based organization of Volunteers who provide professional, multi-role response to major incidents. Areas of specialty include: · Provincial Response Group (local and EMAT) · Disaster Response and Assistance · Urban and rural Search Operations · Search operations for abducted children · RAST (Residential Assistance Service Team) · Body and body part recovery operations · Rapid water search operations · Evacuation Centre (security, safety, traffic, medical) · Incident management of volunteers · Intelligence gathering for disasters and search operations These areas of response are not within the purview of the City in most instances. In order to ensure an appropriately networked response it is recommended that this request be forwarded to The Region of Durham for financial support. Also, OVERT has contacted the Ministry of Correctional Services and Community Safety for funding, for this reason we recommend this report be sent to the Minister to express the City's support of OVERT efforts. Attachments: 1. Request letter from OVERT (Acting) Chief A'dministrative Officer EB:mld CORP0227-07/01 Report CAO 07-05 Subject: Request for Funding (OVERT) DatE;: February 24, 2005 Page 3 Attachments Copy: Chief Administrative ~fficer Recomme~the ¢~Siderafion of Pickerin~ homas J. Qui~, Chief Administrative Officer CORP0227-07/01 EMERGENCY RESPONSE Ontario Volunteer Etnerge Cy Response Team Inc. Hon. David Ryan & Council One The Esplanade Pickering, Ont. L1V6K7 bruary 15, 2005 Dear Mayor Ryan & Council, I am writing to you on behalf of the Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team (OVERT). As you are aware, OVERT has attempted unsuccessfully to secure funding from your municipality for the services we currently and historically have provided to your residents in association with many of the various Durham Regional Emergency Services. One of the purposes of this letter is to update you on our program and to ensure that there is no misunderstanding as to whom is funding the OVERT program within the Durham Region. It was recently reported in a local newspaper that some councilors were of the belief that OVERT is funded by the Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS). This is not correct. OVERT does not receive any funding support from the DRPS or any other regional government agency. The Region of Durham is the only local government that does not deal directly with OVERT but makes it a municipal responsibility. Other areas in Southern Ontario enlist and fund the agency at the Regional or County level. Except for the Durham Region, OVERT does not have to solicit municipalities for funding. In every case outside of Durham Region, OVERT has first been approached by regions, counties or cities to have the program moved into their community, and financially supported. Over the past few months OVERT has had an ongoing dialog with senior staff from Minister Monte Kwinter's office, Minister of Correctional Services and Community Safety. Following a visit by the Ministers staff to an OVERT training exercise in Ajax and a recent meeting with them in Toronto, three OVERT pilot program proposals are currently before the Ministers staff. Although I cannot divulge the content of these proposals, what I can say is that if accepted, I am sure they will only apply to municipalities that have joined the OVERT Municipal Partnership Program no later then 2005. Additionally at the CEMC meeting for Peterborough County in Jan/2005 it was passed unanimously by every municipal CEMC to recommend that the County write a letter to Minister Kwinter asking that the Ontario Government match funding from Peterborough County and the City of Peterborough for OVERT. This followed on the heels of a County-wide endorsement of OVERT by the CEMC's for Northumberland County. P.O. Box 54062 8 King Street East Oshawa, ON L1H lA9 Ph. (905) 404-2889 or (416) 676-9035 EMERGENCY RESPONSE Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team Inc. Currently within Durham Region only the Township of Uxbridge and the Municipality of Clarington are full Municipal Partners with the OVERT program. With this letter please find a report on the OVERT program which illustrates how advanced a concept OVERT is as it pertains to involving the community in providing a multi-role community response to major incidents and disasters. I believe it's advantageous to look at the City of Peterborough's experience with OVERT. In 2003, OVERT was asked to make a presentation to CEMC's for Peterborough County (for which the City of Peterborough is a part of), the purpose of this presentation was to explain the OVERT program as the County had some degree of interest in it. After a productive presentation, OVERT was thanked and notified that the CEMC's had interest in the program, although it would take a period of time before they could move forward. Fast forward to the Peterborough Flood Disaster, by day three of the disaster the Peterborough Fire and Rescue service (as well as the other emergency services) were reaching exhaustion with no end in site. Needing additional resources that they would not have to incorporate directly into an already overwhelmed dispatch and incident management system they contacted the Toronto Fire Services Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) agency. HUSAR in turn recommended that Peterborough contact OVERT and to ask for assistance. For the next four days OVERT provided 2000 hours of service working in very close association with both Peterborough Fire and Rescue and Peterborough Social Services. Providing timely intelligence on the condition of some four hundred residences (and the residents) to both the departments allowed for a prioritized response by the emergency services. At the height of the operation, OVERT had fourteen crews, supervisors, managers and support staff providing in excess of sixteen hours of daily coverage. OVERT was the only community based organization in Ontario that could of provided the service required by the Peterborough emergency services. Intelligence gathering, suicide intervention, medical assistance, security, supply off loading, heavy lifting, social service escalations, medical escalations, and fire service escalations were some of the services provided by OVERT. By the end of this operation, OVERT had the full support of the Peterborough Fire and Rescue department to have the City of Peterborough join the OVERT MPP. The daily cost of having OVERT provide service was thirty times less then the $15,000.00 per day (average) that was charged to the city by some of the more traditional community organizations. P.O. Box 54062 8 King Street East Oshawa, ON L1H lA9 Ph. (905) 404-2889 or (416) 676-9035 EMERGENCY Ontario Volunteer Emergency Response Team Inc. RESPONSE OVERT is no longer a just a Durham based agency, with expansion currently occurring in Northumberland County, Peterborough County and the Cities of Toronto and Peterborough. Seventy percent of new recruits in 2005 will be from these areas. In order to ensure that training spots are available to your local residents it is critical that OVERT has your support. I believe that council will appreciate the difficult position OVERT is placed into if we do not have your support. Our current and future funding municipalities do not want to see their funds used to provide service to a non-funding municipality in Durham Region. Currently, for every dollar your municipality invests into OVERT in 2005 up to ten dollars in service is returned. This is achieved thru funding from other municipalities, corporate sponsorship, private donations, barter agreements, fundraising as well as application and membership costs. Additionally, OVERT is currently sitting at the table with another party who has shown interest in matching each municipal dollar. Finally if your municipality has no wish to have OVERT provide services I ask that you have your staff notify us so that OVERT can make the necessary adjustments. I look forward to hopefully securing your municipality's participation with OVERT into 2005 and beyond. I would like to thank you in advance, should you have any questions please contact me at 905-439-2127 or via email at sharbinson@overt.ca. Also, please visit our website at www.overt.ca. Sincerely Shane Harbinson Executive Coordinator OVERT Inc. P.O. Box 54062 8 King Street East Oshawa, ON LIH lA9 Ph. (905) 404-2889 or (416) 676-9035