EmergeX Planning Inc. (EmergeX) was part of the Burrard Clean Operations (BCO) Team for the 10,000 Tonne Marine Oil Spill Exercise on June 8-9, 2006. For this exercise, BCO successfully demonstrated its ability to handle different marine oil spills to maintain its certification program by Transport Canada. Two members from EmergeX Tully Waisman, President and CEO and Stacey Chobotar, Manager of Corporate Services held key positions in the planning section.

This exercise had been designed to review BCO’s readiness to respond to a marine oil spill in the Vancouver Harbour. Tully was the Situation Unit Leader for the day shift. His primary responsibility was to update and maintain all information pertaining to the spill. “I noticed that since BCO implemented the Incident Command System there is a comprehensive way to easily assign people to roles and responsibilities,” said Tully.

For the night shift, Stacey acted as the Situation Unit Leader. Her experience made her realize that ICS proved to be ideal for managing complex large events like this particular exercise.

This organization often participates in smaller exercises, so this was an excellent opportunity for the team to be involved in a large event that only happens once every three years. EmergeX team members participated with many other organizations that are apart of the Burrard Clean Operations Team. “It was great to see that all participants of the team acted as if the exercise was real. It went very well and now we are one step further to ensuring preparedness for any large scale spills we have on the West Coast,” said Tully.

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