39th Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers

WHEREAS, enhanced cooperation and collaboration is particularly important during major events that may threaten the reliability of the regional energy systems that serve the states and provinces; and

WHEREAS, the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP) adopted an International Emergency Management Assistance Compact (IEMAC) in 1998 which provides for mutual aid assistance among signatory states and provinces for the management of an emergency or a disaster that is affecting member states or provinces; and

WHEREAS, the International Emergency Management Group (IEMG) was established, through the International Emergency Management Assistance Memorandum of Understanding (IEMAMOU) in July 2000, to develop and maintain mutual aid arrangements and provide emergency management leadership in mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities for the member states and provinces; and

WHEREAS, the IEMG has developed and exercised an Operations Manual and within this Operations Manual has defined a process to allow states and provinces to request and provide mutual aid assistance; and

WHEREAS, IEMG members share best practices, adhere to a common incident management system and have available emergency management resources, both human and non-human, to be shared and deployed among IEMG partners; and

WHEREAS, IEMG members within their own jurisdictions strive to continually conduct hazard identification and risk assessments, maintain emergency management plans, validate these plans through emergency exercises or response to/recovery from real emergencies and disasters; and

WHEREAS, a joint province-state exercise, held on June 3, 2015, was developed by the IEMG to measure and analyze the functional interoperability of the IEMAC, collaboration requirements, information sharing and dissemination, and the mobilization of resources across borders in response to an incident, from which recommendations were developed for plan improvement from exercise participants; and

WHEREAS, the IEMG is conducting work on Hazardous Materials (HazMat) response, including identifying HazMat related preparedness, response and recovery activities, models for mutual aid support and options for reporting on HazMat storage, exercise planning and delivery.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the NEG/ECP will ensure the continued use of the existing compact and its complementary mechanisms to strengthen partnerships and exchange of information to achieve the strategic implementation of emergency management systems and the activation of IEMG resources to emergencies or disasters; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the governors and premiers call on the Canadian and U.S. federal authorities to maintain and strengthen collaboration and support for cross-border preparedness and mutual aid; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the IEMG be directed to implement, where appropriate, the recommendations arising from the June 2015 joint province-state exercise to further strengthen its ability to respond effectively to emergencies and disasters; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the IEMG be directed to continue work on its HazMat initiative with the goal of developing a consistent method to ensure the necessary response to any HazMat incident in the region is delivered in a timely fashion.