As February winds down, I want to share a conversation that came up at the Don Valley North Winter Bash back in January. Around a warm campfire, the topic of the recent Los Angeles wildfires surfaced, and residents asked, “What if something that devastating happened here?
It’s an important question—so let’s talk about emergency management in Toronto.
When we think about emergencies, each of us recalls a different event. The one that sticks with us is often the one we lived through or played a role in responding to. For me, it’s the Toronto Propane Explosion on August 10, 2008.
That summer, City Hall was in its annual August recess, and our top leaders—the Mayor, Police Chief, Fire Chief, and City Manager—were on vacation. Mayor’s Office had asked me to be on call as Acting Deputy Mayor, saying, “Nothing will happen.” Famous last words.
The morning after the explosion, I found myself at the table of Toronto’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), representing the Mayor. The OEM is activated in major crises, bringing together designated leaders from across city services to coordinate an immediate response. The process is clear: a leader is appointed from those present, and they must stay at the head of the table throughout the crisis to maintain continuity. That day, the Deputy City Manager took on that role, allowing the Fire Chief’s team to focus on responding to the explosion itself, including the tragic loss of one of their own firefighters.
The system works because we plan ahead. The OEM is called together in a crisis, but the permanent team at Toronto Emergency Management (TEM) works year-round to review every emergency, learn from it, and refine our response. Because of this continuous learning, we’ve improved our handling of everything from apartment transformer explosions to citywide power outages. TEM also helps residents prepare, offering tools and resources to get emergency-ready. If your group is interested, we can arrange a session to learn more.
Toronto’s preparedness showed in 2020 when COVID-19 hit. Having learned from the SARS outbreak in 2003, we swiftly activated the OEM, with Fire Chief Matt Pegg leading the emergency response while Dr. Eileen de Villa focused on public health. What we didn’t know then was just how long that emergency structure would be needed.
So, does every crisis require the OEM? Not necessarily. Let’s take this month’s snowstorm. Snow, in a Canadian city, doesn’t typically pose a mass fatality risk, so an OEM-level response wasn’t triggered. But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t have done better.
Here is my take:
Hampered mobility isn’t necessarily a reason to evoke the OEM and haul all leaders into a room. Snow in a Canadian city may not have the potential to cause mass fatalities. But it is possible to take the learnings that TEM keeps on hand for us and put them to use in a crisis of lesser scale. I do believe that along with telling you how much plowing was underway, as Transportation Services were doing on television on February 14th, I believe we should have had a leadership team telling you how bad the snow was going to be after the repeated storms that were forecasted.
A joint leadership announcement telling you that you should make plans to stay off the road all day Saturday and Sunday and where possible, work from home on Monday, could have made all the difference. It tells you the coming storm is no joke. It allows the services to get through. Telling people that they should get provisions and be prepared for a power outage sends a message.
Moreover, I would have been more blunt about needing all parked cars off the road and out of the way of the transit system. Rather than warning of tickets, I might have announced that folks have until sundown February 14th to dig their cars out and get them off the road or these will be towed. That way we might not have lost crucial clearing service priority in the suburbs to all of the difficulties downtown that continued for days.
There will be a review of the snow-clearing contracts, but we also need to examine how well we communicated with the public. When we see an extreme storm coming, we should be prepared to say so—loudly, clearly, and with direct instructions. That’s something I hope Toronto Emergency Management documents and reinforces for next time.
We are prepared for emergencies in Toronto. Something on the scale of the Los Angeles wildfires would be devastating anywhere, but there are plans in place here. We can always learn and improve.
Help Us Improve Emergency Preparedness
The Office of Emergency Management wants to hear from you! Your input will help shape how we prepare for and respond to future emergencies. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey:
If there’s community interest, we can also arrange a local meeting to discuss emergency preparedness in Don Valley North. Let me know if your group would like to host a session!
Let’s keep learning, planning, and improving—because the next emergency will come, and Toronto needs to be ready.