Managing chaos

CITYLIFE | EMERGENCY Keeping Airdrie safe

AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE ROLE OF CITY DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

BY STACIE GAETZ

If you thought your job was stressful during the COVID-19 pandemic, imagine being the Director of Emergency Management (DEM) for the City of Airdrie.

Lorri Laface has been the DEM, in a shared role with City Manager Paul Schulz and Fire Chief Kevin Weinberger, since 2009.

“The three of us can fill the position and act under a state of local emergency for a shorter-term disaster but for a long-term, slower moving, high-impact situation like a pandemic, one person generally takes the reins.”

As the DEM, Laface works closely with City departments, provincial and federal agencies, and other key stakeholders to co-ordinate all emergency services and resources required during a major incident.

She enforced the Municipal Emergency Management Plan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 17.

The implementation of the plan allows the City to reduce all public and private facility capacity including but not limited to bars, restaurants, lounges and halls as well as close and cancel other City facilities and programs.

“We would ask ourselves, ‘What problems are we facing and what do we need to do to overcome them?’” says Laface.

She also activated the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at a level two. This meant the members of the Emergency Management Department met virtually every day to review the situation as information was provided from the provincial operations centre.

Laface says that Alberta Health Services (AHS) is the lead agency for the pandemic, meaning the City receives information from AHS and then determines the best course of action for Airdrie.

“The biggest aspect of what we have been doing is contingency planning around COVID and the business continuity planning,” says Laface.

She adds the quick pace at which rules and regulations change has been a challenge. Another tricky part of navigating the pandemic is the fact that the situation is not linear.

“It doesn’t follow any sort of rules,” says Laface.

“We have one foot in response and one in recovery as we know at any time we could slip back and need to put restrictions back in place.”

She says they have been working on a Resumption of Services Plan that has included subject matter experts and leaders in a number of fields.

“I see Airdrie as resilient and being open to change,” says Laface.

GETTING HER START

If it sounds like Laface knows what she’s doing, she does.

She is currently taking her Masters in Emergency Management from Royal Roads University and has been involved in the field of emergency management for 24 years.

In fact, when she started more than two decades ago, emergency management wasn’t even a field.

“I was a paid on-call firefighter in Rocky View County and I was sort of voluntold to take on these duties even though there wasn’t a department for it,” she says, adding she has always been very interestVIRTUAL TOUR360˚ ed in the planning and preparing aspect of emergency management. WATCH VIDEO