Manager of Emergency Preparedness

PowerStream Inc. is the second largest municipally-owned electricity distribution company in Ontario, providing service to more than 355,000 customers residing or owning a business in communities located immediately north of Toronto and in Central Ontario. It is jointly owned by the Cities of Barrie, Markham and Vaughan.

Purpose: Reporting to the Vice President, Operations, this position manages PowerStream’s overall Emergency Preparedness Program. The Manager is expected to develop and execute robust emergency management concepts and strategies to provide excellent response to our customers, shareholders and internal and external stakeholders. The overall electricity response plan must meet all requirements of Ontario legislation and IESO Market Rules and regulations. They are responsible for recognizing and utilizing industry practices and trends to ensure PowerStream remains an industry leader in emergency preparedness. They are also accountable to identify best practices, influencing improved work practices across the organization and oversee the analysis and reporting function for outage communications and restoration performance.       

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Continual management and development of PowerStream’s Electricity Emergency Preparedness Plan (EEPP).
• Development and delivery of training  programs to be delivered internally.
• Attending conferences, exercises, and training programs surrounding the Ontario, Canadian, and North American  electricity utility industry. requirements. Analyzes trends and recommends  improvements to senior leadership.
• Continual management and development of PowerStream’s PREPARED internal planning application.
• Defines functions and relationships  between departments, roles associated with emergency preparedness, and ensures that emergency response processes are coordinated across the enterprise.
• Acts as a principal during the execution of electric emergency incident restoration and recovery efforts by providing guidance and/or direction on the plan, execution, and resources required during Level 1, 2 or 3 events.
• Ensures an adequate level of  preparedness across all staff in their assigned emergency roles. Ensures  the completion of preparedness activities across multiple departments depending on the level of the emergency. Provides guidance/direction on resource requirements and resource movement during an event.
• Monitors potentially disruptive  situations including environmental/weather concerns, epidemics/pandemics, staff/resource disruptions, etc, and provides guidance on planning and preparation as appropriate.
• Leads initiatives to improve the emergency management process. Recommends emergency recovery metrics to the company's metric owners across the organization. Performs quality control  functions for Distribution System Operations such as analyzing communication quality and tracking restoration estimation metrics.   Interprets technical and business implications of emergencies and critiques findings across the organization.
• Manages PowerStream’s relationships with external emergency preparedness partners (i.e. Community Emergency Management Coordinators, Emergency Management Ontario, and other agencies  as applicable). The Manager will provide emergency planning, training, exercise, and emergency response services internally and externally as required.
• Drives increased preparedness and capabilities, instills advanced understanding of the Incident Command System, and builds credible public safety partnerships.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for exercise support for external stakeholders including law enforcement, fire, public works agencies, contractors and utilities and other specialized groups within PowerStream’s service territory.
• Develop metrics for exercise and training execution and delivery.
• Work with the outage communications team and prepare restoration performance reports to identify trends and performance. Works with stakeholders to identify cost inefficiencies and best practices in order to influence improved work practices across the organization.
• As the Business Continuity Program (BCP)matures, provide expertise and input to development of plan. Lead and  manage the Operations and Construction BCP requirements and content.
• Manage any financial or budgetary responsibilities to ensure all needs are met and executed in the normal course of the position.

Experience and Educational Requirements:

• College or University degree in related subject or an associate accreditation in Emergency Management or Business Continuity (ABCP, CBCP, MBCP, MBCI)
• Member of the Ontario Association of Emergency Managers (OAEM)
• Knowledge of the Ontario electricity market rules, regulations, and requirements
• Minimum of 8 years’ experience in the  Emergency Management field
• Strong strategic, analytical, and  communications skills.
• Thrives in a rapidly changing  environment; able to quickly grasp needs and opportunities of new business ventures.
• Able to provide innovative solutions to complex issues in a timely manner
• Energetic and enthusiastic team player  committed to overall success of the organization.
• Working knowledge of incident response  organizations
• Strong relationship building skills
• Available to support a 24/7 operation
• Travel required
• Familiarity with CSA standard Z1600
• Completion of Emergency Management  Ontario EM-200 and IMS-100 courses.

Please submit your resume in confidence by:  May 4, 2014   to: https://careers-powerstream.icims.com/jobs/intro?hashed=0. We thank all applicants for their interest; however only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

April 22, 2014