Questions need to be answered

Pat White

Letter to the editor,
When I moved to Rainy River a little more than six years ago, it was the first time that
I was to live in a small community. I have grown to very much love this area and its people, so, I hope you will accept what I have to say as coming from the position of caring.
Years ago, I used to tell those who worked for me - the quicker we admit that we made a mistake, the quicker we can look at ways of not making the same mistake again.
Standing on the sidelines and applying blame, serves very little purpose. And I do believe in giving credit where credit is due, so to all the volunteer firemen of Rainy River, I believe your services are invaluable, and that we as a community need to say, again and again - for all the times you have come away from your jobs, or gotten up in the middle of the night, or had to miss staying at an important family gathering - we are grateful that you give everything you do. I believe there were a lot of people who responded that day: Doctors, nurses, hospital and clinic staff, ordinary citizens, etc., so they too, need to be thanked.
Having said that, perhaps, outside of fighting flood waters, the Town of Rainy River hasn’t seen a potential disaster such as what happened when “gas” was pouring out of a line, [with what I was told was a tremendous amount of pressure] for more than an hour. But as we now know, one never knows what might happen. So the question for me is, how will we react should something as dangerous as this was to happen again?
So, what I might be so bold to suggest is, that The Town Council enter into a full scale investigation of what took place that day, including hearing from a representative of the Gas Company as to what would have happened had a spark somehow ignited the gas ?
Possibly a Task Force could be set up with representatives from the Town, the Hospital / Clinic, the Fire Department, the OPP, and the Gas Company and others if needed. The people of the Town of Rainy River deserve an Emergency Plan that will not only be in place, but possibly ‘practiced’ from time to time, such as we do with fire drills in our schools.
What areas of emergency response need to be re-evaluated? Questions need to be answered [again, not to lay blame, but to find better ways of responding]. For instance, why is it that those in the OPP who make the decisions on how budget money is spent, decided to give us a beautiful new building, then decided not to have an OPP Officer on duty in that beautiful new building - at least twelve hours a day? Is there an evacuation plan for patients in the Long Term Care Area of our Hospital, and what would we do if this happened in the middle of Winter? Who is the person who would / should take ultimate control in the event of a large-scale emergency such as this had the potential to be?
These are only a few of the questions I have, but I want to close by saying - it’s not just the responsibility of the Town Council to make sure we have the very best emergency procedures in place - it is the responsibility of each and every person in Rainy River [ to voice your concerns, yes ] but to also remember: “that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re likely still part of the problem..”
–Respectfully,
Pat White
Rainy River