Calgary’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) was open a record-breaking 76 days in 2024, nearly 50 per cent higher than the prior record of 54 days set in 2023.

For comparison, the EOC was open for 14 days for Calgary’s 2013 floods, one of the largest natural disasters in Canadian history.  The record length of this year’s opening was largely due to the Bowness and Montgomery water main break, and to assist wildfire-displaced citizens of Jasper.

The EOC is the base for Calgary’s Emergency Management Agency, and it’s the centralized coordination centre for major disasters and emergencies. It brings together dozens of agencies to help manage and support a multi-faceted response, from immediate relief to communications.

The increasing demand has put significant pressure on Calgary’s emergency infrastructure, according to a report presented to the Emergency Management Committee on Nov. 28. A rise in frequency and complexity of emergency issues has compounded matters further, emergency officials said.

Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) Deputy Chief Coby Duerr said that any time there is an emergency, it forces an already limited staff with a full workload to suspend their current work. It forces a 24-hour schedule of operations, requiring much longer hours than normal, he said.

“These things come together and put incredible critical pressure onto members of our team and many of our early debriefs findings indicate an unsustainable work-life balance for staff,” he said.

With 911 and emergency management in the same space, Duerr said core leadership members are “wearing two hats” supporting the EOC, along with demand on 911 services.

“The new normal and these realities will require us to… evaluate our response models over the next few months and investigate mitigation strategies to ensure we have sustainable staffing levels that allow for team members to incorporate much needed time off, incident vacation time, recovery time, and the ability to continue with the non-emergency work,” he said.

Duerr also said that its now not uncommon for emergencies to overlap. That puts further strain on resources as efforts such as support for responding groups, tracking, invoicing, and reconciling costs must be duplicated.

“Emergency events are expensive,” he said.

“City enabling services need to understand the financial risk of each response, ensuring funding is available to pay the bills on time.”

Duerr said groups are required to work on an emergency beyond the actual start and end of respective incidents.

Council support required: CEMA Chief Henry

CEMA Chief Sue Henry said that the risk landscape in Calgary is evolving. She said there’s an increasing risk to city services, including on staff and resulting downstream impacts from emergency response events.

The difference between something like Calgary’s 2013 flood and the emergencies of today are that this summer, for instance, they were asking citizens to take actions on things they couldn’t see, feel or understand. The flood, the rains and the visual of rising waters made it much easier to comprehend the need for a response.

Chief Henry said changes will require a review of staffing models, training, working with provincial and federal emergency response and updating Calgary’s municipal emergency plan. Though Henry said she wasn’t asking for anything specific from the committee or council during the meeting, the need for council’s support will come.

“You’ve heard a lot about the risks associated to changing response. This means that down the road, we’re going to consider new ways of doing business, which may come with additional asks,” she said.  

“It also means that we need your continued support and engagement as the Emergency Management Committee of council to help us prepare for, respond to and recover from events.”

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said it was important that this report gets in front of all councillors.

“This is the first step, is letting us know that they have work to do, and that work is going to impact council and the city budget, and we have to be prepared for that,” he said.

The report will go to a full meeting of council on the consent agenda. The suggestion at committee was for it to be pulled from the consent agenda at that meeting to allow a re-presentation of Thursday’s information for all of council to see.