This month marks our 39th year supporting our Plan members with all their emergency preparedness and response needs. Our mission throughout this time has been to deliver safe, timely and effective dangerous goods emergency response services and training that ensure the safety of our communities, responders and Plan members.

Safety is ERAC’s first core value and at the heart of all of ERAC’s activities and initiatives. To that end, we are embarking on what will be our busiest year yet.

Late last month, ERAC and CPKC hosted Transport Canada regulators and trained their Remedial Measures Specialists in safely responding to hydrogen and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-related incidents. 

This year, ERAC will conduct 37 Regional Training and Assessment events of each ERAC LPG, flammable liquids and hydrogen response team in our network. These events will provide our response teams with the opportunity to hone their skills and get updates on any new industry trends and developments, while they are assessed and approved to safely respond to incidents on behalf of our Plan members.

To ensure public and first responder safety, we will be holding a flammable liquids firefighting training session in Brandon, Manitoba, this May to ensure our response teams are well-trained and competent to provide a safe and effective response to a flammable liquid incident. Additionally, as it is often local firefighters who are first on scene at an LPG incident, we will be holding several LPG Level 1 Operations firefighting training courses for local fire departments in high-traffic LPG transportation areas. Again, our goal is to train firefighters, so they can safely manage LPG-related incidents.

All of this happens, of course, when we are not responding to incidents on behalf of our Plan members.

For 39 years, we have strived to be the highest quality emergency preparedness and response assistance organization in Canada. Our passion for safety and excellence is validated by the ongoing support of our over 300 Plan members and the thousands of responders that keep coming back year after year.

None of what ERAC accomplishes annually can be done without our dedicated team of professionals both in the field and behind the scenes. Our people, including all our partner response organizations, are our greatest asset. As we look forward to another busy year of training and response, I encourage our responders to embrace safety in every aspect of your daily lives and ensure everyone goes home safely afterward!

Spencer Buckland
President

The Board of Directors for ERAC and the Canadian Propane Association recently approved three new additions to the ERAC Board. ERAC welcomes new Board members Evan Doucet (Irving Oil Limited), Steve Plewes (Cenovus Energy) and Alison Pratt (Parkland Corporation).

ERAC is pleased to announce that Brittnay Pullano has joined our Process Services team as our new Process Services Coordinator. Brittnay will be supporting ERAC’s Plan members with the Emergency Response Assistance Plan (ERAP) application process, providing ongoing assistance in support of our members’ ERAPs, and assisting with the registration, technical support and maintenance of ERAC’s learning management system. Welcome Brittnay!

Nucor Environmental Solutions Ltd. Edmonton is one of the few ERAC response teams to be fully trained and assessed to respond to incidents involving flammable liquids, liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and hydrogen.  

Working in one of the most active regions for LPG traffic in Canada, Nucor has become one of ERAC’s busiest response teams since becoming an approved ERAC response team in late 2020.  

ERAC commends the Nucor Edmonton response team on their ongoing commitment to safety, excellence and professional growth.  

There’s Still Time To Apply For The 2025 Leo Sichewski Memorial Bursary

A little over eight years ago, Leo Sichewski, a valued 24-year veteran of ERAC passed away. In memory of Leo, we created the ERAC Leo Sichewski Memorial Bursary fund that provides financial assistance to qualified recipients who are enrolled in a certificate, diploma or degree program in safety, emergency management or first responder training. The bursary is open to Plan members, ERAC responders, and family members of each group. 

You can find more details about the bursary here.

Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2025.