Sometimes even the big city needs to call on its neighbours for help. The snowstorm on Oct. 2 had some impact on Okotoks roads, but nothing like it had in store for the town’s neighbour to the north. With snow accumulating faster than expected, particularly in its northern communities, the City of Calgary put out a call to surrounding municipalities to assist with snow removal. “Once we established our community’s needs had been met, and following up with our partners through the mutual aid agreement, we were able to send one loader on a flat deck with a semi truck and one operator to assist with Calgary,” said Okotoks fire chief Ken Thevenot, who is also the Town’s director of emergency management. He said the weather pattern over Calgary was much different than it was just 20 kilometres south. “We were sitting in Okotoks going, ‘We’re getting barely any snow here,’ there was very little coming down at that time, so our streets were good,” said Thevenot. He said if conditions in Okotoks had changed suddenly, the loader and employee would have returned back to town to assist with local snow removal. It’s part of the regional mutual aid agreement for emergency services, which includes several municipalities in the areas surrounding Calgary, he said. “When a neighbour calls for help we try to do what we can,” said Thevenot. “Calgary has been very good to us over the years for the support they’ve given to us with events over the years as well. “We have been a recipient of this support from Calgary before, so it wasn’t a question for us. We’re happy we could help out.” [email protected]
