Читать книгу Emergency Incident Management Systems - Mark Warnick S., Louis N. Molino Sr - Страница 72

The use of an IMS method in Canada revealed that the Incident Command System (ICS) is the primary method utilized. Some have the opinion that the system is used across the nation as a standardized approach to incident management (ICS Canada, n.d.), while others state that the use of ICS is left to each individual province (personal communications). Research revealed that Canadian's have made some slight adjustments to ICS to meet their needs, and the overall system appears to have widespread use.

An organization called ICS Canada (n.d.) claims that the first iteration of ICS in Canada happened in the Province of British Columbia during the mid‐1990s. In 2002, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), mandated that all provincial, territorial, and federal agencies should learn and utilize the CIFFC's version of ICS for wildland firefighting. This version of ICS included a standard doctrine and provided training materials for the wildland fire community across Canada. The mandate was directed at wildland firefighting operations, but the mandate did not include nonwildland firefighting organizations. Even without the mandate, many agencies who were not involved in wildland firefighting operations began to utilize this IMS method for daily response, and soon, the use of the Canadian ICS system increased (ICS Canada, n.d.).

When the CIFFC was reviewing potential updates to the wildland firefighting courses, it was realized that the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) was looking to provide a single command and control system that incorporated an all‐hazards approach that would meet their long‐term provincial emergency management needs. These two separate entities with very different response areas cooperated and collaborated with each other to create the groundwork for the use of ICS in Canada (ICS, Canada). While it appears that not every province has decided to utilize the ICS method, the organization known as ICS Canada was actively recruiting provinces and organization to adopt this standard for incident management as of the writing of this book.

This brings us to the use of Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) in the country of Canada. Research revealed that the clear majority of hospitals in Canada have adopted the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) method as a standard. Since 2006, the Ontario Hospital Association (2006) created a hospital emergency management toolkit, which included the call for implementation of the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS). From information found in research, it appears that this has become a voluntary standard across Canada, although it does appear as if there was some government urging.