MEMBERSHIP - OVERVIEW

Membership – Overview

Emergency Response Assistance Canada (ERAC) provides a variety of benefits to organizations that become Plan Participant Members.

Our plan members count on us for all their emergency preparedness and response needs and to ensure their organizations are compliant with all government regulatory requirements.

 

  • Benefits of Membership

    Emergency Response

    • National plan that responds to road, rail and stationary tank incidents anywhere in Canada (including offshore in Canadian territorial waters)

    • ERAC invests in the retention, training and maintenance costs of our committed, nationwide response network of experts, made up of technical advisors, remedial measures advisors and response teams

    • Equipment caches situated throughout the country for surge capacity due to changing demands or incident volume

    • Firefighting equipment and manpower located strategically across the country

    • 24-hour ERAP phone number staffed 24/7/365

    • On-call home base coordinators provide technical advice to meet regulatory compliance

    • Technical advisors to manage incidents in a safe and cost-effective manner on behalf of Plan Participants

    • Emergency logistics support, including trained, assessed and approved response teams, for incidents

    • Access to ERAC's ArcGIS Resource Locator and Incident Dashboard located in the ERAC Plan Participant Portal

    • Full Plan Participant debriefing and reporting on every Tier 2 implementation incident

    • Monthly emergency call centre drills

    • Growth of specialized emergency services (hot tap, vent and burn, ISC defeat, etc.)

    • Continuous network monitoring and risk and gap analysis

    Cost Effective

    • Fixed costs limited to annual standby charge

    • Opportunity to offset standby charges by supplying fully trained personnel and/or equipment

    • No upcharges on emergency response fees

    • As a not-for-profit corporation, ERAC invests all revenue over expenses into improving its emergency response capabilities for its Plan Participants

    • ERAC maintains $10,000,000 in comprehensive general liability insurance

    Government Regulation Compliance

    • Participation includes Transport Canada-approved ERAP reference number, where applicable

    • Support for Transport Canada's ERAP Online Services (EOS) system

    • ERAP program administration, including managing response capabilities and contracts in EOS

    • ERAC develops environmental emergency (E2) plans compliant with Environment and Climate Change Canada regulations

    • ERAC develops spill contingency plans that meet the requirements of the B.C. Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy

    • ERAC develops rail security plans compliant with Transport Canada regulations

    • Compliance assurance and readiness reviews for Plan Participants

    • ERAC meets regularly and maintains relationships with government organizations, such as Transport Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the B.C. Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy

    Ongoing Responder Training

    • Continuous improvement of training modules created by ERAC for industry

    • Contracted responders fully trained in H2S, fire awareness, Incident Command System, product transfer, critical stress management, static electricity control, first aid and CPR, public safety, flaring and purging, gas detection, containers, SCBA/PPE, media relations, TDG and WHMIS

    • Technical advisors receive additional NFPA-based training, including but not limited to: Tank Car Specialist, Hazardous Materials Technician, Crude by Rail Firefighting, Highway Emergency Response, hot tapping, and vent and burn

    • ERAC trains, assesses and approves all responders and response teams annually to ensure they are competent to respond to incidents on behalf of Plan Participants

    • ERAC ensures responder network meets Transport Canada training requirements as per Emergency Response Task Force recommendation

    • ERAC responder competence and compliance are tracked through ERAC’s Learning Management System, Workhub

    • Development of formal hazard assessments, policies, procedures and codes of practice, that are made available to ERAC’s responder network

    • Network monitoring for safety-related incidents or near misses, that are communicated to ERAC’s responders through bulletins

    • Free online training and on-site mobile liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) firefighting training for fire departments

     

 

ERAP - Emergency Response Assistance Plan

ERAP Readiness & Review    ERAP Video

 

 

E2 - Environmental Emergency Plan

E2 Readiness & Review    E2 Video