Dear Editor,
During this federal election campaign, Saskatchewan’s urban municipalities are highlighting a number of issues that affect people and communities across our province. One key area that is of particular concern to our cities, towns, and villages
— and our residents — is public safety, especially as it concerns natural disasters and rail safety.
Recent years have demonstrated that large-scale natural disasters are happening more frequently with a significant financial impact on all orders of government.
The recent dramatic increase in costs related to natural disasters shows a broader trend in Canada and globally. In fact, in 2013, a leaked briefing package from Public
Safety Canada indicated that the rising cost of natural disasters and the financial burden on Ottawa is the country’s biggest public safety risk.
To ensure our towns, villages, and cities are financially and physically equipped to deal with natural disasters when they strike, the leaders of Saskatchewan’s urban municipalities are calling on a new federal government to:
1) re-open the Canadian Emergency Management College to provide comprehensive, collaborative and inter-jurisdictional training for municipal and provincial emergency responders;
2) reinvest in the Joint Emergency Preparedness Project (JEPP) to ensure municipal fire departments and other emergency responders have access to the equipment required to respond to emergencies as safely and effectively as possible;
3) reverse recent threshold changes to the Disaster Financial Assistance
Arrangement Program to prevent the downloading of response and recovery costs onto municipalities by provinces and territories;
4) provide communities with access to national climate research and risk assessment tools, as well as funding to build and adapt climate resilient infrastructure; and,
5) expand the National Disaster Mitigation Program to include ALL natural disasters (not just floods) to allow direct application from municipalities, and to fund larger mitigation and infrastructure resiliency projects.
We strongly believe that these changes can significantly reduce the impact of natural disasters on vulnerable communities and reduce the costs to the taxpayer associated with these events.
Alongside natural disasters, safety at rail crossings is another public safety issue facing our communities. Rail safety was brought to the forefront with the disaster in
Lac-Mégantic two years ago where a train derailment killed 47 people and devastated municipal infrastructure and local businesses.. While we are supportive of new federal regulations that require municipalities to improve rail safety, including upgrades to rail crossings, we are calling on the federal government

elected this fall to allocate targeted funding to our cities, towns, and villages to ensure we can make these improvements.
A federal government can go a long way to enhancing public safety in our communities by providing financial assistance, and investing in training and capital projects including mitigation projects and rail crossing improvements. Public safety should be a priority for everyone, including our federal government.