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Volume V Issue ll
June 2017
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Message from ERAC President,
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| ERAC Rail Emergency Training Exercise |
On behalf of all ERAC staff, Board of Directors and myself, I would like to thank all of the ERAC Responders across Canada that attended the ERAC National Training Forum held in Calgary on May 15-17.
From all accounts, it was a great success with an overwhelming good or excellent rating from those who completed surveys of the event.
We had dynamic keynote address from Bruce Kirkby, a Canadian adventurer, photographer and writer, who helped us understand the seven risk behaviours we should consider when performing our work.
We heard from Laurie Pearce, an expert in helping individuals in managing post traumatic stress.
There were numerous other great speakers that helped us understand best practices in rail and road responses, and we are grateful to all of them.
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Announcements
New to Our ERAC Team
Chris Whitman, Full-Time Technical Advisor
Lee Nelson, Full-Time Technical Advisor
They will be responsible for coordinating emergency preparedness and response-related activities, Regional and LPG Firefighter training and providing technical advice on-site at dangerous goods incidents for the product, container, fire protection and response processes and developing new ERAC training and competency programs.
Good-Bye
Carla Kautz has completed her part-time contract with ERAC as Marketing and Communications Advisor.
"Thank you so much for this opportunity. I have enjoyed my time with ERAC, but as a parent of two young boys, a full-time commitment is not possible at this time. I am excited for the opportunities that a full-time Marketing and Communications Advisor role can bring to ERAC. I wish them all the best." -Carla Kautz
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Training & Events
Annual two-day training and assessment of LPG, Flammable Liquids Response Teams
ERAC requires annual mandatory two-day training and assessment sessions for all LPG and Flammable Liquids Response Teams. Up coming dates:
Flammable Liquids
Montreal, QC -2017-09-06
Montreal, QC 2017-09-07
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
Fort St-John, BC -2017-09-27
Fort St-John, BC -2017-09-28
Barrie, ON - 2017-09-13
Barrie, ON -2017-09-14
Training locations for rail, truck and stationary tanks are important in helping ensure our responders are ready for any incident. All of us at ERAC thank these companies for stepping forward in support of the Regional Training and Assessment program.
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Our Dedication to Safety
Don Merriam, Manager, Operations
Safety is one of our core values and we strive to embed a safety first mindset, both on and off the job, in our employees and in contracted personnel working with us.
Safety is a job not just for people who have "safety" in their title or written on the back of a reflective vest. It's a job for everyone, everywhere, every day. It never stops. And it takes all of us to think about safety and to actively discuss these issues in order to reach and maintain the highest safety level.
The tailgate safety meetings held before each critical stage of a response allow each responder to voice concern or suggest ways to eliminate possible dangers to themselves and fellow workers.
...Read more
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Fall Prevention
Patrick Knight, Manager, Safety & Quality Assurance
Falls are a common cause of serious work-related injuries and deaths. Employers whose workers are exposed to fall hazards are responsible for ensuring not only that those workers have appropriate fall protection, but also that they're trained on how to use it.
As part of ERAC's dedication to safety, we will start tracking the fall prevention training for all our responders starting June 30, 2017. Responders will have the option of uploading their employer provided, fall prevention training certificate or taking the ERAC, on line, fall prevention training program through SafetySync....Read more
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Update on SafetySync
Cheryl Dahlager, Manager, Process Services
ICS 100 will be mandatory in your SafetySync portal effective June 30, 2017 and will affect your overall compliance.
ICS 100 Training can be found by clicking on the following link:
Please remember to upload your certificate by this date so your overall compliance will not be affected.
Also, as of June 30, 2017, ERAC will start tracking the fall prevention training for all our responders. Fall prevention will be enabled as a mandatory certificate requirement.
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Joint Training
Louis-Philippe Ethier, ERAC Technical Advisor
Often the fire department response finds a hazardous condition that meets its threshold level based on its protocol. The Fire Chief may then request an ERAC response team. Approach this scene as you would any hazardous material incident. In effect, you are arriving at a confirmed emergency. The dangerous good may still be leaking, and the situation may be getting worse.
Some fire department crews also often describe us (the ERAC emergency response team) as "The Lone Ranger" (not the cavalry) relative to the assistance given. When you arrive at an incident, you have a number of tasks to perform: make your own size-up, identify/evaluate the hazard, decide on a course of action, and determine if additional response team members are needed. Keep in mind that the response time of any additional help might be even longer than the initial response time....Read more
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ERAC On-line Course Update
Finbarr Wilson, Training Development Consultant
Training at ERAC is about to change. For the better.
Starting with the upcoming Release of a new Static, Grounding and Bonding course, ERAC will be improving every facet of online training.
Instead of static PDFs (sorry about the pun!), ERAC courses will move to a new interactive format. The wall of text will go, replaced by combination of a voiceover, matched to minimal onscreen text and supported by tons of images from the field.
From time to time, students will be asked to demonstrate their newfound knowledge in a small exercise. It could be a drop and drag interaction, or perhaps the student can move a slider representing a variable to see what happens.
The goal of all these changes is simple. Engagement. We want our students to walk away from courses with a strong and lasting memory of the content, because the delivery of the content is compelling.
What we don't want is students to fake it, by skipping through page after page of dense text then challenge the exam. And we all know that happens. And we all know it's far from perfect. The new courses will help.....Read more
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ERAC Key Performance Indicators
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ERAC's Average Arrival Time by Type of Responder
2011-2017
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ERAC's Number of Incidents by Container Type
2011-2017
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ERAC's Number of Notifications (non-activated)
by Container Type
2013-2017
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2017 ERAC
Operating Budget
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STAY CONNECTED 
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