Region enhances disaster preparedness with newly appointed emergency management coordinator

Sunny South News Photo Courtesy of Lethbridge County. NEW EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR: Breea Tamminga was recently appointed the region’s first emergency management coordinator for Lethbridge County, Village of Barons and the towns of Coalhurst, Nobleford and Picture Butte. 

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

After announcing a new Regional Emergency Management Partnership (REMP) agreement in November 2024, Lethbridge County has taken the next step and appointed a new emergency management coordinator for the County, Village of Barons and the towns of Coalhurst, Nobleford and Picture Butte.

Breea Tamminga will lead the regionís disaster preparedness and response efforts as part of the newly signed REMP agreement. This per-capita cost-sharing initiative aims to unify emergency management strategies, strengthen readiness and response and bolster resources across partnering municipalities. The partnership also focuses on preparing for major disasters, while routine emergencies will continue to be managed by a communityís existing fire and EMS contracts. 

Tamminga, who holds a Master of Arts in disaster and emergency management, along with several related certifications, brings extensive emergency management experience to her new role, including coordinating emergency operations centres during incidents such as the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. She has also developed and facilitated emergency management training, including full-scale exercises involving multiple stakeholders. 

“I am excited for the opportunity to strengthen our emergency management processes and training programs,” said Tamminga. “As individual county, village and towns, we have (an emergency response plan), we’re now bringing them all together because emergencies and disasters don’t respect the boundaries of our communities. We recognize that it’s going to be a better opportunity for us to coordinate our response and our resources to better manage and be more cost effective, should there be an emergency or disaster that we need to respond to,” she explained. 

As part of this collaborative approach, Tamminga will meet with each of the partner municipalities and regional stakeholders to identify challenges and opportunities before developing a Regional Emergency Management Plan. In her new role she will focus on “balancing the needs of the different municipalities in our region” as well as adjusting their unique strengths and challenges so that they can “figure out what our best approach going forward is.”

“Definitely, looking at our Regional Emergency Response Plan (RERP) so that we can all collaborate effectively in order to manage any complex incidents that might occur,” said Tamminga. 

She will also lead training initiatives for municipal staff, building capacity for effective response during large-scale or long-term events. That involves having staff learn and follow an incident command system, as required by the Alberta Emergency Management agency. 

“We’re going to continue with that education with our staff to make sure that they have the correct level of incident command system training,” she said, adding there is also an annual requirement to participate in a tabletop exercise and every four years, conduct a functional exercise. 

“So we’re going to be building up to that over the course of the next few years, to make sure that both from an educational standpoint (and) a training standpoint we can manage an incident effectively.”           

Tamminga also pointed out the importance for families and community members to be prepared for emergencies and disasters so that if an event occurs, they too are prepared and know what to do in such an incident, whether that is to shelter in place or plan for an evacuation.      

Growing up in the City of Lethbridge, Tamminga is happy to return to the area and contribute to the region’s emergency preparedness. She looks forward to working with partner municipalities to prepare them and build resilience across the region.  

“It’s a really good opportunity for me to come back, see how the community’s changed and support our community moving forward, to be more prepared for emergency disasters that would arise,î Tamminga concluded.