By John Francis, Bruce Peninsula Press
At Bruce County Council’s regular Meeting on April 4, Council received a delegation from the Canadian Armed Forces. Major Paul Pickering appeared, representing 31 Brigade of the Reserves, under the aegis of 14 Division out of Toronto. 31 Brigade operates out of London.
Major Pickering explained that the Armed Forces have responded to various environmental emergencies in recent years including flooding in Ottawa and forest fires in Northern Ontario and elsewhere.
A planning exercise began in January as Operation Trillium Response — planning for an environmental disaster. The result is Operation Trillium Venture, an all-hands-on-deck operational exercise in which three Battalions of Reserves will conduct field operations in different parts of Ontario. In all cases, the field operations will be done at some distance from familiar territory, to mimic actual field conditions. 33 Battalion operates out of Ottawa/Petawawa; its field exercise will be in the North Bay/Sudbury/Timmins area. 32 Battalion operates out of Camp Borden; its field exercise will be in the Bancroft area. 31 Territorial Battalion Group (31 TBG) operates out of London; its field operations will be in Huron and Bruce Counties.
In our case, Major Pickering explained, the disaster is a 13-day heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 40°C on days 4-5 and 7-9. The exercise will be held on May 3-5 (it’s a weekend; Reserves have other jobs.) The PowerPoint which accompanied the presentation explains the exercise: “Severe storm causing power outages, damage to infrastructure and homes on day 5; Possible water shortages in some communities. Option to add wildland fires to further escalate; Exercises occur on days 6-9”.
Major Pickering explained that 31 TBG is mostly reservists, so command doesn’t actually know for certain precisely who is going to turn out for any exercise; they are expecting approximately 800. The majority will report to their home armoury on Friday and will be deployed to the field that evening. The field HQ will be in Blyth; there will also be an emergency operations centre but its location has not been chosen yet. He noted that this is a large area for 800 personnel to offer any kind of humanitarian assistance so the coverage will be “light and thin”.
There will be forest fire training in the Blyth area, but other exercises are planned for Mildmay, Walkerton, Wiarton, Sauble Beach, Lion’s Head and Cabot Head. An important part of the training is simulated door-to-door wellness checks. This will be done “live”, so if you live in Lion’s Head, Wiarton or Sauble Beach, don’t be surprised if soldiers knock on your door May 4 or 5, asking how you’re doing.
Another part of the exercise is a simulated rescue at Cabot Head. The Battalion Engineers and a platoon of Naval Reserves will be deployed to Cabot Head to do a simulated Search and Rescue operation in Zodiac boats and on shore.
After the presentation, County Council Members (County Council consists of the Mayors of the eight municipalities in Bruce County) responded to Major Pickering’s presentation. Councillor (and MNBP Mayor) Milt McIver asked “How are our communities going to be informed or are they?” Major Pickering explained that this was being handled by Public Affairs in London. Public Service Announcements were being published in both Huron and Bruce Counties and they were in contact with various media; a flyer was distributed in early April.
Three weeks later, we have heard nothing other than a very sparse post on Facebook. [Update, April 29: A sparsely worded Press Release from Bruce County arrived as this newspaper was going to press.]
If you’re interested in hearing/seeing Major Pickering’s delegation to Bruce County Council, the video and PowerPoint are both available on the Bruce County website (www.brucecounty.on.ca).
Cell Tower Decision Deferred
Shared Tower Inc approached MNBP late last year with a proposal to build a 90m tall cell phone tower on Lindsay Road 40, west of Dyers Bay.
A public consultation process was undertaken, but the municipality has received letters and delegations alleging the process was not conducted fairly.
The issue came up for a vote at MNBP Council’s Apr 22 Meeting, but Council voted to defer the decision, for multiple reasons. With two council members absent, Deputy Mayor Rod Anderson was reluctant to bring a contentious issue to a vote. He suggested deferring the decision until Council has more than a bare quorum.
Councillors Smokey Golden and Todd Dowd were comfortable with that decision, although both spoke in favour of re-starting the consultation process.
Councillor Golden pointed out that justice not only needs to be done; it needs to appear to be done. She felt that controversy undermines the credibility of the process. She complained that not enough effort was made to address misinformation. Councillor Dowd agreed, stating “I have put many hours of my time into trying to make sense of this”.
The Motion to Defer was passed by a unanimous vote.
