"the disappearance of this important organization."
Important how? And at what cost to the taxpayer? And to cover what type of "disaster"... Earthquake in Timmins? Typhoon over Queen Charlottes? Street litter in Rosedale?
The biggest embarrassment to FEMA and their State little sisters here in the US has been the effectiveness of local agencies such as Catholic Charities and private enterprise such as WalMart.
Mark, with due respect, if someone were to nuke T.O., complete absence of OCIPEP would likely make no difference at first and be better in the long run.
"BIG Bureaucracy" hasn't proven to be of much value in, for example, tsunami relief and recovery from last year. To the point, it has managed to breed little more than Big Corruption.
It's still there where it has been since the Trudeau years: it's called the "Army", and the responsible agency is now known as Canada Command, or CANCOM.
Cheers
JMH
JMH; The Army!? a) they aren't here in Canada b) they aren't HERE, on this side of the Rockies c) they aren't here in sufficient numbers to do much immediate good in any case, other than perhaps in Ottawa, The Centre of the World.
Posted at 2006-01-03 07:12:52 [PermaLink]Ice storms in Canada...............
No power from said ice storms in Canada..........
You miss my point, Dan. The government has long devovled responsibility for Emergency Measures to the Armed Forces. The emergency measures/preparedness organisations have atrophied into policy discussion groups (in Ottawa largely) while the task of "doing something" is sloughed off to the military, to give them something useful to do besides running around the bush playing soldiers. Without allocating the requisite resources for the Forces to fulfull the role.
I shall not disagree that the current distribution of CFBs does not match potential disasters needs, but that's the kind of task (notwithstanding CPC campaign promises) which the new Comander Canada Command will have on his to-do list starting Feb 06.
Is there hope in the future? Remember that Gen Hillier was Commander 2CBG in Petawawa when he had to redeploy his brigade on two days notice to save Ottawa from the ice monster. I suggest he and his staff had that in mind as one of the factors causing the current reorg of the Forces.
Sorry J.M., I misunderstood the point you were making; I think I probably agree that the military IS the appropriate agency to respond to civil disasters. That makes the Liberal's gutting of the military even more criminal than appears at first glance. Strange that the lefties haven't picked up on that, whilst doing the cut-the-military's-budget
Folk dance.
Damian & Mark; somebody's using MY screen name. Those previous two comments weren't from me; please check the e-mail addies,
Posted at 2006-05-14 11:05:39 [PermaLink]I think I don't like having my identity stolen. Please stop, whoever you are.
Having said that, I must admit that I agree with my counterfeit persona's assessment; putting troops up in Comox, as has been suggested, is about as effective as on the other side of the Rockies. The old base (Engineers)at Chilliwack was perfect.