| Taped Interview Commentary |
| Interviewee: |
Mike Braham |
| Organization: |
Emergency Programs & Exercises
Emergency Preparedness Canada |
| Position: |
Director |
| Location: |
Ottawa |
| Telephone: |
|
| Date: |
April 22, 1998 |
| Interviewer: |
Stewart Fyfe |
| No. of pages: |
|
Mike Braham is the Head of Operations at Emergency Preparedness Canada.
Braham says "the system" did work during the crisis. It "lumbered" a bit at first but it did work. Part of the problem was that there were people from EPC and from other federal departments who were victims at the same time. There was one guy who would go home every night. He had no power. He had people staying over at his place because he had a generator going. He would come back during the day and work. This was not realized until we did his Critical Incident Stress Debriefing afterwards. "This thing was bigger than I realized". "There was a hell of a lot of stress".
Braham personally did not lose power for one second (he lives in Kanata). The Canadian Coast Guard did a lot of good down in Brockville. Braham says he was impressed with the town of Boucherville who somehow got their hands on two C.N. locomotives (to use as a power source).
Braham says EPC was not operating under any extraordinary legislative powers during the ice storm. They didn't get to the Emergencies Act so they were just operating under the general authority of the Emergency Preparedness Act. This didn't bring us any special powers. He says they probably broke a few existing guidelines with respect to procurement. Braham says they "winged" it at times when it came to procuring resources.
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Interviews 
