Sudbury police, fire, EMS committed to making sure 'recommendations come to life'

The city of Greater Sudbury had already been taking steps to improve its emergency services, even before recommendations from an inquest jury were handed down last week.

The coroner's inquest heard about problems with Ontario's 911 system in two specific tragedies, one in Sudbury and the other in Casselman.

The Sudbury case revolved around the emergency response to a boat collision on Lake Wanapitei in 2013.

The jury handed down 27 recommendations to help improve the 911 service — 19 aimed at the province of Ontario, and eight for municipalities that provide 911 service to residents.

Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger said the city will evaluate the recommendations from the inquest with its community partners before determining next steps.

However, the city's three emergency services have been working together to make improvements since the tragedy five years ago says Joseph Nicholls, chief of fire and paramedic services.

"It would be very difficult to replicate the same conditions that we saw on June 30, 2013 to today with all the work that we've done."

Advisory Group created after 2013 tragedy

Nicholls says a Joint Emergency Services Operations Advisory Group (JESOAG) was created, made up of senior representatives from police, fire and EMS and their communication centres.

"Certainly [the advisory group] is focused on interoperability through policy changes, communication upgrades, training and doing after-action reviews of joint responses so that we can look for opportunities to improve," he said.

Nicholls says JESOAG has been responsible for helping to establish staging sites across Sudbury where all three emergency services can rally together at a call. The group has helped to set up joint training exercises using mock emergency scenarios.

There have also been technology upgrades for emergency vehicles, and a conference line established for responding supervisors from police, fire, and EMS to start planning how to address a specific emergency call.

After every major emergency call where all three services are involved JESOAG reviews the after-action report.

"They take a look at it, and then they look for those opportunities to make improvement and then they execute those ideas."

Nicholls calls this advisory group the 'cornerstone' to evaluating the jury's recommendations.

"We owe it to the Bertrand, Kritz and Humeniuk families to make sure that we're continuing to improve our services," Nicholls.

Improving 'gaps in the system'

"We are encouraged to see that there are recommendations that are going to improve some of the gaps in the system," said police chief Paul Pedersen.

He says the call centre for police and fire call taking and dispatch in Greater Sudbury is still co-located, however the workspace has changed since 2013.

The inquest heard the night of the boat crash it was chaotic, hectic, noisy and understaffed.

Pedersen says quite regularly the three emergency services work together at the same scene, and there is cross-communication, but each responder of police, fire and EMS knows what their role is, and which service has the lead at the call.

"All three of us are working together and the more that we train that and the more that we practice that the more efficient we become," Pedersen said.

"This is not easy on anybody and we are truly committed to learning and moving forward and making sure that the recommendations come to life," he added.

Mental health help

Over the past five years there have also been changes to mental health programs and services available to emergency responders.

Both Nicholls and Pedersen stressed the importance of providing mental health support to first responders who experienced stressful or difficult calls.

"All the leaders — police, fire and ambulance — are all committed to protecting our staff, and our communicators, because it is a tough job and certainly they see a lot of tragedy, but they are also making a huge difference out there," Nicholls said.

He says since 2013 there have been new policies, prevention programs and peer support networks added to help first responders.

"Everyday they are going out and saving lives, and improving situations and helping people with whatever emergency they have. It's vital we support them."

Listen to the full interview here: