About Emergency Preparedness Program

The Emergency Preparedness Program for the City of Brandon continues to evolve as the city grows. The program is made up of two distinct parts – emergency response and public preparedness information. Both parts work to include government, business and citizens in response and preparedness activities. The current version of the Brandon Emergency Plan has been used as a model for other small cities in Manitoba. It outlines the requirements of a program that is integrated with the community as it works towards improving emergency preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. This requires a coordinated community approach to public information, response training and early warning.

One aspect of the program that sets Brandon apart from other jurisdictions in the country is the community education focus of the Brandon Emergency Support Team. B.E.S.T. has provided the opportunity for City personnel to work closely with a variety of industrial, institutional, commercial, non-governmental, governmental, and private organizations and citizens. This community partnership has resulted in annual large scale exercises, an annual emergency preparedness conference, highly regarded educational materials, a standardized shelter-in-place protocol, more thorough hazards review and risk assessment, a federally funded study of emergency alerting, and an overall program that is highly regarded by those who have come into contact with it.