Swift Current city council recently underwent training for potential incidents like the 2023 floods. 

Following the last Governance and Priorities Meeting, the executives from city hall were able to learn about the Incident Command System, for municipal management during emergencies.

The training was run in collaboration between Marlene Funk, Emergency Management Coordinator for the City of Swift Current, and Brendan Anderson, Southern Saskatchewan response area emergency services officer of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency.

Ryan Hunter, Fire Chief for the Swift Current Fire Department, believes that this training will be invaluable in case of events like the 2023 Swift Current Creek flood.

"It keeps [city council] prepared," said Hunter. "And gets them ahead of the game so that if we do have an emergency, they're certainly well informed of the roles that are responsible for."

The training broke down examples of major incidents, running the council members through the scenarios and what they would be responsible for.

By giving them mock experience, the training helps to ensure they are capable and experienced for if and when the real thing happens.

"It's an all-inclusive training for opening up an emergency operations center," recapped Hunter. "This kind of training keeps everybody informed."

It also covered how to cooperate in mutual aid, working alongside partners and setting up channels for communication. This will help with getting work done faster, and avoid any procedural mistakes that may cause delays.

"It would be just second nature," said Hunter. "It's been in our training program so that we would be far more resilient after and get our city back to normal as fast as we can after [a disaster or emergency]."