Emergency Plan Pt1: Critical Incidents

• Critical Incidents Plan

• Emergency Response Plan (chemical spills)

CRITICAL INCIDENTS

UNB Crisis Management Plan for Major Damage, Loss or Threats to Physical Facilities

Scope

A critical incident can occur at any time and result in a crisis situation. The Critical Incident Plan is designed to assist members of university administration to effectively coordinate the use of university and community resources to ensure employee and student safety as well as to minimize property damage during and immediately following a major crisis.

The following policy and procedure statement applies to all University of New Brunswick facilities situated on both the Fredericton and Saint John campuses. It also includes teaching and research activities undertaken by university faculty, staff and students at recognized teaching and research locations, as identified:

Tweeddale Centre for Industrial Forest Research;
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Prosthetics Facility;
Maggie Jean Chestnut;
Bathurst Nursing;
Moncton Nursing;
Beaverbrook House, Saint John;
Bank of Nova Scotia Building, 40 Charlotte Street, Saint John;
InPrint, UNBSJ Bookstore, CenterBeam East, 16 King Street, Saint John; and
applies to other properties owned, leased or rented by UNB.

Critical Incidents Defined

A critical incident is defined as any loss of, or damage to, physical facilities that cannot be responded to with standard security procedures. This policy and procedure statement is applicable when there is interruption in the use of, or major damage to, physical facilities resulting from unforeseen occurrences such as: fire, explosion, chemical spill, loss of heat, flooding, freeze up, severe weather/natural disasters, breach of security (such as demonstration or disturbance, violence, terrorism - nuclear, chemical or biological threat), wide-spread outbreak of illness (such as influenza or pandemic flu), or other events or circumstances that could substantially impact the accessibility or use of physical facilities.

Supplemental emergency/contingency plans and procedures have been developed to support business continuity on each campus (e.g., for pandemic flu, chemical spills and a number of facilities). Administrative heads of units must ensure their procedures are designed to integrate with this policy and procedure for critical incidents. Other university policies developed on accidents, personal injury, fatality, assault, violence, etc., may be initiated by the same incident (refer to UNB Safety Handbook at http://www.unb.ca/safety/handbook/safetyhdbk.html, Radiation Safety Manual and Personnel Policy Manual at http://www.unb.ca/hr/employees/policies.php

If in the judgment of the Security Department an incident occurs at the university that cannot be dealt with effectively through regular channels or other specified procedures, such as their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), then they will contact the Critical Incident Co-Team Leader(s) for activation of the plan and possible assembly of the Critical Incidents Team to initiate the response and recovery process.

Critical Incidents Team

A central component of this policy and procedure statement is the identification of the composition, roles and responsibilities of the Critical Incidents team for each campus.

The role of each team is to review and direct the coordination of the incident response and recovery process to:

Minimize any threat or loss to the university in physical, human and financial terms;
Manage the incident to minimize disruption to regular operations; and
Make changes for continuous improvement.

The Critical Incident team members will act in concert under the direction of their Co-Team Leader(s) to facilitate coordinated and effective response to the critical incident. The Co-Team Leader(s) will chair regular debriefing sessions with the Team Members at a pre-determined incident command centre until the recovery process has concluded.

A. Fredericton Campus

Co-team leaders:
• Vice-President (Finance and Corporate Services
• Associate Vice-President (Capital Planning and Property Development)

Team members:
• Director, Security and Traffic
• Associate Vice-President (Human Resources and Organizational Development)
• Director, Risk Management
• Director, Environmental Health and Safety
• Director, Facilities Management
• Triage Team, Issues Management & Crisis Communications
• Appropriate Dean, Director or administrative head (includes: the Registrar, Executive Director of Student Affairs and Services, or Director of Residential Life and Conference Services, if students and residences are directly impacted)
• Associate Vice-President, Integrated Technology Services (as required)
• University Solicitor (as required)
• City of Fredericton representatives/emergency responders (as required)
• Provincial authorities (as required)

B. Saint John Campus

Co-team leaders:
• Vice-President (Saint John)
• Assistant Vice-President (Financial and Administrative Services)

Team members:
• Manager, Environmental Health, Safety and Security
• Director, Risk Management
• Manager, Facilities Management
• Triage Team, Issues Management & Crisis Communications
• Appropriate Dean, Director or administrative head (includes: the Registrar, Director of Student Life and Support Services, and the Manager of Housing and Food Services, if students or residences are directly impacted);
• Technical Officer - Radiation Safety (as required)

Director, Information Services and Systems (as required)
University Solicitor (as required)
City of Saint John representatives/emergency responders (as required)
Provincial authorities (as required)

Procedures

An organizational chart of the initial procedures to be followed by each campus, including the responsibilities of each team member, is appended to this policy and procedures statement.

The initial assessment of an incident will commence with the Security department. If the incident exceeds the scope of their normal operating procedures, the Director of Security (UNBF)/Manager of Environmental Health, Safety and Security (SJ) will be contacted.

The Director of Security (UNBF)/Manager of Environmental Health, Safety and Security (SJ) will determine if the incident dictates contacting the Co-team leader(s) of the Critical Incidents team.

At the discretion of the Co-team leader(s), the team will either be assembled or placed on standby. To facilitate timely decision-making, the team will meet on a regularly scheduled basis during/following the incident. These meetings will take precedence over all other commitments until the progress of the recovery process dictates a reduction in the frequency of meetings. Minutes of these meetings will be maintained.

Each of the Critical Incident team members will be responsible for contacting and arranging the necessary services and expertise required to complete the recovery process which may include services and expertise to assist with the emotional recovery of faculty, staff and students affected by the incident.

Communications

• Priority Access for Dialing (PAD)

Priority Access for Dialing (PAD) is a service feature developed by Industry Canada to ensure essential telephone lines are configured with priority dial tone access should the communication systems be temporarily overloaded during emergency.

The ITS department is responsible for telecommunications on each campus, including management of PAD access for members of the Critical Incidents team. Therefore, it is essential that each member of the team notify Security of any changes in their contact information.

• Public Relations

The Office of the President and the office of Communications and Marketing are jointly responsible for issues management and crisis communications as they relate to the Fredericton campus. This responsibility is assigned to by a three-person “Triage Team” consisting of the Senior Advisor for Advancement, Office of the President; Manager, Communications and Marketing; and the Public Relations Officer, Communications and Marketing.

Contact Lists

A contact list has been developed for each campus that includes the names and telephone numbers of the team members. If possible, each of the team members should name an alternate to assume their duties or to relay important information.

Site Plans

Facilities Management maintain engineering plans of the campuses, including site, building and buried infrastructure (water, sewer, service tunnels) that are made available to emergency response agencies.

Post-incident

Upon final resolution of the incident and all related matters, it is recommended that a written post-appraisal be conducted of all emergency procedures utilized during the incident to assess the adequacy of the existing procedures and incorporate continued improvement based on the outcome of the incident.

This Critical Incident Plan is reviewed annually by Financial Services Risk Management.

Critical Incident Plan Flow Chart (pdf version)

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