Email icon Back to Search

Loyalist Township’s Fire and Emergency Services team have launched a Community Risk Assessment Survey to gather feedback from residents and gauge the community’s knowledge on risk assessment. The survey closes on Friday, August 18, 2023.

Community risk assessments allow fire departments to make informed decisions about the types and levels of fire protection services they will provide based on identified risks. 
 
Risk is defined as a measure of the probability and consequence of an adverse effect to health, property, organization, environment, or community as a result of an event, activity or operation. 
 
By identifying all fire and life safety risks in their community and prioritizing them based on the probability of them occurring and the impact they would have if they occurred, fire departments are able to determine which risks to address and how best to address them. Risk assessments allow fire departments to ensure their levels of service, programs and activities for public fire safety education, fire code inspections and enforcement, and emergency response directly address the identified risks and are most effective at preventing and mitigating them. 
 
The Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997 (FPPA) mandates that every municipality in Ontario shall establish a program which must include public education with respect to fire safety and certain components of fire prevention and provide such other fire protection services as it determines may be necessary in accordance with its needs and circumstances. In the fire service, these elements are commonly referred to as the “Three Lines of Defence” as noted below: 

1. Public Fire Safety Education 
2. Fire Safety Standards and Enforcement 
3. Emergency Response 

Ontario Regulation 378/18: Community Risk Assessments (O. Reg. 378/18) requires that every municipality and every fire department in a territory without municipal organization complete a community risk assessment and use it to form decisions on the provision of fire protection services. The regulation further requires that a CRA be in the form, if any, that the Fire Marshal provides or approves. The Community Risk Assessment is an in-depth and comprehensive assessment to inform fire protection service levels and requires the identification, analysis, evaluation and prioritizing of risk, based on nine mandatory profiles. 
 
We encourage all Township residents to participate and complete the short Community Risk Assessment Survey before it closes on Friday, August 18, 2023. We appreciate and value comments from the community.