The Mayor and Members of Vaughan Council joined the Vaughan Fire and Rescue Service Senior Command Team on Tuesday for the unveiling of a new Mobile Command Post. This project was made possible by a grant from the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program (JEPP), a national program designed to enhance the national emergency response capability across Canada.

?The Mobile Command Unit provides the ability to manage large scale emergency events 24 hours a day, seven days a week,? said Mayor Linda Jackson. ?This grant has helped to improve our emergency response abilities and will ensure that the City of Vaughan has the necessary resources to respond to an emergency or a disaster. As an example, the Mobile Command Unit was put into service before the official unveiling due to the tornado which touched down in Vaughan on August 20. It is an excellent tool which provided invaluable assistance.?

The Joint Emergency Preparedness Program is a joint undertaking with the provinces and territories and is administered by Public Safety Canada. Municipalities apply to Emergency Management Ontario for funds for emergency management projects and the province reviews the applications and identifies those projects that meet the established criteria.  The JEPP program funds up to 45 per cent of the project cost or to a maximum value.  In the case of the Mobile Command Unit they will fund up to a maximum of $40,000. The grant covered outfitting the vehicle but not the cost of the truck.

?I?m pleased and very proud of the final result that you see here today. It clearly meets our immediate and future needs,? said Fire Chief G. R. Senay. ?I want to express our gratitude to the various levels of government who participated in this project but most importantly our thanks to our own Council for their continued support and encouragement in seeing that the Vaughan Fire and Rescue Service has the best resources available to deliver the high-level of emergency services that our residents deserve.?

Earlier this year the City received a grant from JEPP for the City?s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). The EOC was used during the City?s declared tornado emergency.