An emergency response assistance plan (ERAP) is a necessary document for those transporting certain quantities of dangerous goods within Canada, such as liquified petroleum gases, flammable liquids, ammonia and hydrogen. An ERAP describes what the industry will do to support first responders and keep the public safe in the event of an accident involving these products.

At ERAC, our valued Process Services team works with Plan members to navigate through the sometimes-complicated ERAP documentation and regulatory approval process and manages any subsequent plan renewals and updates to ensure ongoing regulatory compliance.

ERAC’s Process Services personnel work with new Plan members to assist them with their ERAP application to Transport Canada and help the Plan member understand their role in the ERAP. This includes completing their ERAP documentation, reviewing their emergency and ERAP contacts, commodities and provinces involved, modes of transport, and insurance requirements. This information is then uploaded to Transport Canada’s ERAP online services (EOS) system. Once the ERAP has been approved, the team manages any changes – new emergency contacts, commodities, emergency response teams, etc. – that could impact the status of a Plan member’s ERAP, and ensures any changes are accurately reflected in all regulatory documents.

Possessing an approved ERAP is crucial for the legal transport of dangerous goods within Canada. Our dedicated Process Services team ensures that our over 300 Plan members (and over 400 ERAPs) remain in good standing, allowing their products to move seamlessly across the country.

While the emergency response side of our business is well-known, it's the quiet, front-end administrative work that enables Plan members to ship their goods.

Thank you, Process Services team, for your unwavering commitment to our members!

Spencer Buckland
President

ERAC is pleased to welcome Bassam Saeed, who joins us as our new Health & Safety Specialist. Bassam will be supporting ERAC’s health and safety management system and regulatory compliance requirements and advocating and promoting a safety culture with ERAC’s employees and responder community. Welcome aboard Bassam!

While we welcome Bassam, we wish to extend our gratitude to Technical Advisor Trevor Dickinson, who has elected to leave ERAC and return to his previous employer. ERAC thanks Trevor for his contributions to our organization and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

As a not-for-profit emergency preparedness and response organization, ERAC’s success rests on the people and companies that support our various training programs and exercises.

Paul Nicholson is the Director, Business Operations with Primemax Energy Inc, and for the past seven years, has been a Response Team Member with ERAC’s Ontario Central liquified petroleum gas (LPG) response team.

As a strong supporter of ERAC’s programs and initiatives, Paul has actively participated in ERAC response team training activities and learnings and enthusiastically supported numerous ERAC regional assessment and training events through the provision of Primemax Energy Inc assets (LPG product, trucks and drivers). This support provided ERAC responders and firefighters with the opportunity to work with live product in real-world conditions and directly contributed to the success of a variety of training exercises.

ERAC thanks Paul for his 37-year commitment to the LPG industry and his ongoing dedication to, and participation in, ERAC’s emergency response assistance program and support for our organization.  

ERAC has developed its own versions of the Incident Command System (ICS) 100 and 200 courses to support our responders in meeting the basics of ICS. These two internal adaptations are intended to meet the requirement for ERAC responders who respond to transportation (rail & road) incidents involving liquefied petroleum gases and flammable liquids.

ERAC’s ICS 100 and 200 courses are available for free to Canadian-based first responders (firefighters, police, EMS) and our Plan members and their employees.

Learn more about our ICS courses.