Emergency measures and public safety

What are accessible and inclusive emergency measures?

Emergency measures cover all the resources deployed during an incident or disaster to ensure personal safety as far as possible, save lives and help people. Planning for accessible and inclusive emergency response takes into account the diversity of abilities and needs of the entire population. The aim is to put in place means and actions that will meet the needs of as many people as possible, while providing for specific adaptations for particular needs.

Emergency measures are planned and organized so that:

• L’information et les communications relatives au déclenchement de l’urgence et aux actions à prendre soient facilement accessibles et compréhensibles par tous.
  • Cela inclut toutes les capacités, les habiletés et les tranches d’âge. L’objectif est d’avertir rapidement l’ensemble des personnes concernées afin qu’elles puissent agir sans délai.
• Les aménagements et les équipements à utiliser durant l’urgence maximisent l’autonomie des individus et soient aussi accessibles et inclusifs que possible.
  • Cela vise à réduire le nombre de personnes nécessitant une assistance directe, permettant ainsi aux secours de se consacrer sur celles ayant des besoins spécifiques et sur la gestion du sinistre. Des actions et des parcours semblables pour tous rendent également l’évacuation et les mesures à prendre plus intuitives.
• Les aménagements et les équipements adaptés soient disponibles en quantité suffisante et placés à des endroits stratégiques.
  • Ces installations doivent permettre aux personnes de signaler leur présence et leur offrir un délai de sécurité suffisant jusqu’à l’arrivée des secours. Cela inclut la capacité de secourir les personnes ne pouvant pas utiliser les aménagements ou les équipements inclusifs, où qu’elles se trouvent dans le lieu sinistré.
• Le soutien et le suivi apportés aux populations touchées soient accessibles et inclusifs.
  • Cela implique de prévoir des véhicules et des lieux adaptés pour relocaliser les personnes sinistrées, d’assurer une assistance à domicile dans les hébergements temporaires, de permettre la présence des chiens guides ou d’assistance, ainsi que d’assurer le transport de dispositifs d’aide à la mobilité pour les personnes évacuées en urgence.
• Les équipes de secours soient formées à la diversité des personnes touchées.
  • Cela inclut la connaissance des capacités spécifiques de chacun et la maîtrise des actions appropriées à poser, ainsi que l’utilisation des aménagements et des équipements adaptés.

Overview of the situation

There is a wide variety of emergency response plans, including:

• building fire safety plans

• disaster plans (major power outages, drinking water outages, flooding, etc.) developed by municipalities

• public transit system service interruption or disaster plans

• provincial and federal government plans for major events

Shared responsibilities

Building fire and safety responsibilities are shared between several stakeholders.

• At the time of the construction, renovation or conversion of a site, the architect and owner are required to design and provide the necessary facilities and equipment to ensure everyone’s safety and enable evacuation in the event of an emergency. These measures must comply with the construction regulations in force. It is important to remember that these regulations represent the minimum required and do not necessarily cover all needs.
• During the everyday use of the building, the owner and manager have the following roles:
  • establish an evacuation plan and procedure
  • maintain facilities and equipment in good working order
  • organize regular evacuation drills to ensure occupants know what to do in the event of an emergency
• Within its territory, the municipality is responsible for prevention, which includes raising awareness of and reducing fire risks and managing the fire department.
  • This department is responsible for risk assessment, implementing prevention actions and conducting emergency operations. In several municipalities, firefighters also act as first responders during a medical emergency. In certain areas, they are volunteers.
• For smaller municipalities, which do not have the capacity to assume these responsibilities alone, the RCMs take charge of:
  • developing a fire safety cover plan
  • coordinating interventions and resources for municipalities in their territories
• The Ministère de la Sécurité publique’s role is to:
  • set out the broad guidelines for prevention, workforce training and response and emergency preparedness
  • coordinate the actions of the various government departments and agencies
  • approve the fire safety cover plans developed by the RCMs

Proactivity and gaps

Some stakeholders are adopting a proactive approach to accessibility and inclusiveness. They work with those directly involved to design adapted measures and actions.

Others, on the other hand, take a more reactive approach, adjusting their plans only after finding gaps. This approach can create risks and lead to dissatisfaction among those involved.

Finally, some stakeholders fall somewhere between these two extremes: they partially plan means and actions to make their plans more accessible, but without considering all the necessary activities, such as the evacuation or temporary relocation of a person with specific abilities or needs. 

Consistency is key

To guarantee the safety of everyone in a building, it is necessary to ensure consistency between:

• existing facilities and equipment
• the information provided to occupants
• fire department response procedures

Unfortunately, there has been little change in building regulations regarding fire safety for persons with disabilities. Not to mention that the accommodations required often do not meet their needs.

For example:

• Visual fire alarms and street-level exits are not required by regulation, which limits the ability of deaf or hearing-impaired people to be alerted to the hazard as well as the ability of persons with motor impairments to evacuate the building independently.
• Building layouts do not always correspond to firefighters’ practices, for example, access to a balcony is one of four approaches designed to ensure safety on floor areas served by elevators in residential buildings. However, firefighters are reticent about such an approach due to the high risk of being trapped on a balcony during a fire on the lower floors.
• Emergency response time is also a key factor.  In urban areas, it can be a few minutes. While in areas with volunteer firefighters, this can take over half an hour.

To better adapt facilities and equipment to local intervention practices, the municipality’s fire department should be consulted during the construction, renovation or conversion of a building.

Freedom of choice

For a person with moderate or significant motor impairment, living on or visiting a floor served by an elevator means that they will not be able to evacuate independently in the event of an accident, as elevators and lifting platforms are not to be used. This creates a dependency on others for rescue. Once fully informed of the risks, each person should be able to choose whether to live in or visit this location.

However, this freedom of choice may be questioned if the fire department believes that it cannot intervene adequately and in a timely manner that ensures the safety of all occupants.

Issues may include:

• Too many non-autonomous people to evacuate
• Lack of adapted facilities or equipment
• Longer response time of volunteer firefighters

In such cases, corrective measures may be required from the owner, which may end up leading to a change in the use of the building, particularly for multi-unit residences. Some landlords faced with significant and costly work or legal obligations to their tenants may try to avoid these situations by adopting discriminatory practices, such as evicting tenants or refusing to rent to persons with disabilities.