The spring season is upon us and ERAC continues to help support our ever-growing membership who rely on us to meet their emergency preparedness and response needs across Canada. ERAC staff are working hard to deliver over 40 training events this year to ensure we have confident and competent response capabilities. This includes our biennial Dangerous Goods Emergency Management conference, where our community of responders come together with our Plan members for two days of networking and great learning.

The organization continues to grow in our capacity to support other commodities such as hydrogen and other Class 2 dangerous goods. I am proud of what the ERAC team has accomplished over the years and this year is no exception with the development of well-written reference material to support our training in hydrogen and flammable liquids firefighting.

As part of our commitment to ongoing training, this past March, our entire Operations Team met in Edmonton, Alberta to participate in numerous learning and team-building activities.  

Our first two days of training took place at AltaGas’ Fort Saskatchewan facility and included reviewing and practicing liquefied petroleum gas transfer procedures on day one and testing the efficiency and effectiveness of our ERAC-manufactured liquid flare pots on day two. Special thanks to AltaGas for providing the location and fuel to allow us to properly do our training and test our new flare pot equipment.

Our third and final day took place in Edmonton at one of Suncor’s facilities and focused on hydrogen (H2) transportation and response. This valuable learning session involved numerous members of Suncor’s H2 transportation and emergency management teams and provided our team with a great opportunity to review the company’s H2 fueling station, Alberta Motor Transport Association’s H2 transportation packs, and discuss emergency response procedures and tactics. The movement of hydrogen is expected to grow over time and ERAC will be well positioned to provide our members with a one-stop shop for all their emergency preparedness and response services. Thank you to Suncor for arranging this visit and supporting our ongoing training.

Finally, I want to again thank the hundreds of responders that show their commitment to learning and responding for ERAC and our Plan members.

Good luck and be safe.

Spencer Buckland
President

We were saddened to learn that former ERAC Response Team Leader John Murphy recently passed away. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues who worked with John.

John’s 20+ year involvement with ERAC began under our previous entities LPG Assistance Corp, then LPG Emergency Response Corp, and finally ERAC.

John’s passion, dedication and perseverance set the bar for excellence as a ERAC Response Team Leader. We will not forget what John, and those that have come before and after him, have done to support dangerous goods emergency preparedness and response. Rest in peace John.

ERAC has developed its own versions of the Incident Command System (ICS) 100 and 200 courses to support our responders in meeting the basics of ICS. These two internal adaptations are intended to meet the requirement for ERAC responders who respond to transportation (rail & road) incidents involving liquefied petroleum gases and flammable liquids.

ERAC’s ICS 100 and 200 courses are available for free to Canadian-based first responders (firefighters, police, EMS) and our Plan members and their employees.

Learn more about our ICS courses.

Emergency Response Assistance Canada invites you to join us at the 2024 Dangerous Goods Emergency Management Conference, June 4 - 6, 2024, at Hotel Arts in Calgary.

We're excited to announce our keynote speaker will be four-time Olympic gold medalist hockey legend Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser, who will share her thoughts on resiliency, teamwork and success.

We’ll also be bringing in session speakers from oil and gas, hydrogen, transportation, industry partners and more, including:

• Kristina Adler, Transportation Policy and Program Officer, Chemistry Industry Association of Canada
• Sylvain Guimond, Inspirational Speaker, Author, President and Founder of Biotonix
• Matt Henrie, Policy Analyst, Fund for Railway Accidents Involving Designated Goods
• Mark Jasper, Technical Director – Emergency Management, GHD
• Tim Johnson, Director of Health, Safety and Environment, Northwest Tank Lines
• Dr. Danielle Murphy, Principal Mechanical and Forensic Engineer, WHA International
• Shannon Watt, President and CEO, Canadian Propane Association
• And more.

For more details on the conference or to register, please visit: erac.org/conference.