After Action Review

As part of its commitment to safety and industry best practice, Strathcona County hired an independent contractor to review the County's emergency response and recovery to the Community Centre underground parkade explosions on November 6, 2018, up to full operational recovery on May 8, 2019.

The After Action Review focused on examining information flow and communications, the emergency operations centre, the recovery and re-entry of the Community Centre/County Hall and business continuity planning and management.

The report is based on over 75 interviews with County staff, tenants and partners, a comprehensive review of County documents and plans, along with a scan of relevant internal and external After Action Reviews for best practices and learnings.

• Full After Action Review report

Strengths

• The report’s findings confirmed the County’s actions aligned with its priority of ensuring the safety of citizens and staff throughout the incident.
• Strathcona County maintained full control and management of all municipal services and operations, throughout the duration of the incident.
• Strathcona County effectively recovered and continued to provide municipal functions and services, despite the relocation of 600+ staff and loss of its headquarters in the Community Centre and County Hall complex.
• Throughout its response and recovery efforts, Strathcona County worked with a broad set of community partners (e.g., RCMP, Elk Island Catholic School and Elk Island Public School Boards, Heartland Alliance Church, Alberta Health Services, Library) to care for and support of citizens and its staff.
• The report notes the effectiveness of the internal and external communication with stakeholders and the public following the first day.

Learnings
The key areas for improvement focused on strengthening components of:

• Plans and readiness
  Through further training and exercises for the Emergency Advisory Committee and the Incident Management Team, as well as stronger integration between the County’s emergency response plans.
• Incident management
  Through stronger consideration of unified command,  as well as the development of a recovery plan that formally defines the reporting structure.
• Crisis communications
  Through formal use of internal notifications using existing tools, release of a holding statement earlier, and clearly defined roles for crisis communication versus day-to-day communication.
• Business continuity
  Through ensuring updated business continuity plans, prioritized business functions and overall readiness for primary and secondary recovery options.

Next steps

Moving forward, Strathcona County has committed to actioning all report recommendations, in addition to the work already completed or underway since November 6, 2018.