Are you interested in having your emergency management program evaluated by a peer review team and accredited by a recognized organization? Assessing the demand can help make this service available to Canadian entities. Please advise John Ash with IAEM Canada of your interest by Friday October 15 to help make program accreditation a reality in Canada.

In effort to promote a common benchmark process that is peer driven, IAEM Canada has formed a partnership with The Emergency Management Accreditation Program, (EMAP) to bring an peer accreditation process to Canada. The intent is for the EMAP process to incorporate the Canadian Standards Association Z1600 standard on Emergency Management and Business Continuity. The EMAP process, is a cost effective voluntary review process for emergency management programs. Accreditation is a means of demonstrating, through self-assessment, documentation and peer review, that a program meets national standards for emergency management programs.  The self and onsite assessment process developed and utilized by EMAP allows jurisdictions of differing sizes, geographic location, political structure and hazards faced to internally assess their emergency management program to identify areas of excellence as well as potential gaps in compliance with a recognized emergency management standard.  The process then allows for an onsite assessment by a group of Canadian trained peer emergency managers to come in and validate the self assessment as well as add critical additional insight. This process can and has been used for both accreditation and developmental purposes.  For programs seeking affirmation and recognition as a comprehensive emergency management program meeting compliance with a recognized standard this process provides a vehicle to do so, but the process also provides a wonderful strategic planning tool that allows programs to identify and correct potential gaps in their program.