By The Canadian Press

Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister wants new operations centre to manage disasters

Apr 25, 2017 | 6:30 PM

EDMONTON – Alberta is looking at building a new operations centre to better manage how it responds to disasters such as the Fort McMurray wildfire.

Municipal Affairs Minister Shaye Anderson says the need for a larger nerve centre is one of the lessons learned from the fire last May that forced more than 80-thousand people to flee the area.

Anderson told a Conference Board of Canada meeting that government staff did an excellent job, but more preparation is needed for future disasters.

The province is expecting a report evaluating how it responded to the wildfire to be released next month.

The K-P-M-G report is expected to include recommendations on how the government should update its disaster planning.

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Shane Schreiber, managing director of Alberta Emergency Management Agency, says communities need to do more to prepare for disasters before they happen.

That includes training staff, developing flexible plans and building relationships with key people in other organizations before something challenging happens.

The deputy chief economist of the conference board says it will likely take Alberta four or five years to bounce back from the economic effects of the wildfire.

But Pedro Antunes (ann-too-ness) says spending on rebuilding efforts this year will help bolster economic growth in Alberta to 2.8 per cent.