Lt. Col. David Redman Explains Emergency Preparedness and Covid-19

Christopher Northcott on October 22, 2021

Lt. Col. Redman was the first Director of Community Programs for Emergency Management Alberta. On September 12th, 2001, he became the head of counter terrorism for Alberta. In 2004-2005, he was the team leader for writing the pandemic response plan for Alberta. He was the head of the Emergency Management Alberta which was the successor organization to Disaster Services Alberta. Lt. Col. Redman built it into the organization now known as the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.

How did Canadian governments get the response so wrong?

1. Incompetence

The Premiers didn’t go to their briefing books to see how to manage an emergency. They put the wrong people in charge, being the medical officers of health.

2. Hubris

All leaders become invested in the decisions they make and don’t readily admit when they are wrong.

3. Self-Gain

The lock downs and benefits programs proved politically advantageous causing poll numbers to go up. Perpetuating the wrong response becomes easy when turning to a correct course of action requires courage; it will illicit a short-term backlash.

The Redman Report

Christopher Northcott on October 6, 2021

If you haven’t seen the report put out in July by Lt. Col. David Redman and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, please check it out.

Lt. Col. Redman is a decorated soldier who was the Alberta’s first Director of Emergency Management. He set up our program of emergency management and has written a lengthy indictment of how our response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been handled.

It is my view that the Redman report clearly outlines what went wrong and how we, be it the provincial government itself or municipalities pressuring the provincial government, can rectify such a poor response to this crisis.

If you were infuriated by the recent “emergency alert” that was put out to Albertans (the jarring ring tone over your phone!), you will appreciate that doing so was an exercise in fear mongering. It was an abuse of a system intended to alert us to an IMMEDIATE threat to life and property, be it wildfires, tornadoes or even kidnappings.

A lot has transpired since March of 2020. I think we all are perfectly aware that the province is in a state of emergency. Fear mongering is what Redman calls an “unconscionable tool to use” in emergency management.

Local government in Alberta is subject to the Emergency Management Act, having direct access to the Alberta Emergency Alert system. We work directly with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.

Given my time in municipal government, I am well-versed in the regular training that is required of municipalities and can participate effectively in council discussions about emergencies.

Pandemics are contemplated in the provincial emergency management plan. This should have triggered a State of Emergency under the Emergency Management Act, not a Public Health Emergency under the Public Health Act.

Local government is ideally positioned to seek accountability for how the pandemic has been managed. Everything the province expects of us, they themselves did not do!

The Redman Report can be found here:

“Canada’s Deadly Response to Covid-19,”
Lt. Col. David Redman,
Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Discussing the report with Lt. Col. David Redman

Local Government has the Means and the Moral Authority

Christopher Northcott on October 6, 2021

The video below is a great abbreviated overview of emergency response planning and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Local government has the means and the moral authority to follow up on the Redman Report from July and demand a course correction. Our communities, local economy, and ratepayers have suffered avoidable injury as a direct result of incompetent emergency management and fear mongering.

Everything that the province expects of local government they themselves did not do by enacting the wrong state of emergency, not following our emergency response plan, and handing over our response to Alberta Health Services.

It’s time for Alberta municipalities to assert their authority.

Please take the time to read the Redman report:

“Canada’s Deadly Response to Covid-19,”
Lt. Col. David Redman,
Frontier Centre for Public Policy