The province of Manitoba has finally, finally, gotten moving on creating a warning system to protect the public from weather emergencies and other threats to public safety.
Alone among the local media, The Great Canadian Talk Show has for almost 10 months doggedly pursued the story and demanded answers, from MP Stephen Fletcher on down.
Spirited Kenny has put in many hours reporting on the issues behind the failure of the federal government and the provinces (besides Alberta) to follow through on the Can-Alert concept.
http://spiritedkenny.blogspot.com/2008/01/canalert-low-down.html
Then of course there were the run-arounds
http://spiritedkenny.blogspot.com/2008/01/canalert-lowdown-update.html
And the name change of CanAlert to the National Public Alerting System-- which the government press release (below) did not seem to be aware of.
http://spiritedkenny.blogspot.com/2008/02/rip-canalert-hello-mister-national.html
The MSM was scrambling to read our blogs to get the background information for their stories today. Perhaps one of them will make mention of the little campus radio station Kick-FM and our sharp science broadcaster Spirited Kenny, who kept the pressure on until something was done about this serious shortcoming in emergency planning.
In the meantime we have requested an interview with Minister Steve Ashton for Friday's show. Here is the press release:
June 11, 2008
MANITOBANS TO BE BETTER PREPARED TO RESPOND TO SEVERE WEATHER:
ASHTON
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$960,000 to be Invested In Emergency Preparedness
Manitobans will be better prepared to respond to severe weather as the result of an investment of $960,000, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Steve Ashton, minister responsible for emergency measures, announced today.
"Warning citizens about severe weather emergencies is vital and Manitoba has made improving our warning systems a top priority," Ashton said. "While we have been a leader on the national stage in calling for a Canada-wide public alerting system, we are also moving ahead here in Manitoba on improving severe weather alerting and public awareness."
Ashton announced the province is acting on all of the recommendations of the Severe Weather Working Group with several new investments including:
- $300,000 to support a national Canalert warning system;
- $75,000 to supply all schools and municipal offices with weather radios;
- $450,000 for a three-year public education campaign, which includes radio and print advertisements and updates to Manitoba's Emergency Measure Organization's (EMO) website; and
- $135,000 to work with Environment Canada to expand weather radio coverage to more areas of the province.
In addition, severe weather emergency training and education initiatives will be enhanced by:
- Working with Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth, Environment Canada and EMO to review school curricula to improve the education of students about severe weather and appropriate responses to severe weather.
- Enhancing emergency plans at hospitals, schools,
daycares and personal-care homes.
- Delivering a series of seminars and training programs with the assistance of Environment Canada to community first responders and emergency managers.
- Encouraging municipal emergency co-ordinators to join the Environment Canada volunteer weather watcher program
- Developing a pilot project that will improve emergency planning at the municipal level with assistance from Environment Canada. The initiative will certify communities for emergency planning based on severe weather threats and will complement the existing planning standard adopted by municipalities.
- Entering into an agreement with Palmorex, the parent company of the Weather Network and MeteoMedia, and Comlabs Inc., for a pilot project that will allow Manitoba to transmit a wider
variety of public alerting messages.
Weather watches and warnings are available at no cost from Environment Canada, as well as from a number of private providers including the Weather Network and Accuweather.
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