By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
Preparations are almost complete and the agricultural community of Haldimand will soon have the option of purchasing and displaying a Farm 911 Emily Project sign on their farm this fall. This will assist first responders to locate rural locations without a fixed address more quickly, a potentially life-saving measure in the event of an emergency.
“The Farm 911 Emily Project is such an important initiative because its objective is to increase safety in agriculture communities,” said Lidy Romanuk, General Manager of Economic Development and Tourism. “Having a distinguished address assignment on vacant agriculture land assists first responders in locating individuals who require emergency assistance in a timely manner and indicates to first responders that the incident they are looking for may not be tied to a dwelling. This increases first responders’ ability to locate the incident, especially if the injured party cannot meet Emergency Services at the road.”
She continued, “This program aims to diminish dangers associated with common farm accidents such as tractor overturns, ATV crashes, and farm worker injuries. Although these accidents are an occupational hazard associated with farming, The Farm 911 Emily Project aims to increase response time so that, when these accidents do occur, the injured party receives the best care possible in a timely manner.”
The County got involved after the Haldimand Federation of Agriculture (HFA) requested to meet with staff to deliver a presentation on the initiative and to discuss the feasibility of implementing the project locally: “The presentation by HFA members was positively received by everyone in attendance. Staff agreed implementation of this project would be feasible and suggested the program be brought forward to the Agriculture Advisory Committee for further discussion and direction. The Agriculture Advisory Committee determined they would like to pursue this project and requested to bring a delegation forward to Council to ask for support of this initiative,” said Romanuk.
While the Agriculture Advisory Committee was preparing their delegation, Haldimand County staff prepared a report to present to Council alongside the delegation that provided recommendations on how to implement this program in Haldimand based on best practices identified in other communities. Plans are being finalized to market and promote the program to all applicable landowners, with the County indicating that there are a total of 776 lots throughout Haldimand that are eligible for inclusion.
“This program would not have happened without community support,” said Romanuk. “The program’s biggest supporters have been The Haldimand Federation of Agriculture, The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario (local chapter), and the Haldimand County Agriculture Advisory Committee.”
She continued, “These groups were the drivers of The Farm 911 Emily Project as they raised the importance of this program to the County, brought a delegation to Council asking for support, and acted as a sounding board to staff as we work to finalize all the program logistics. All of these organizations will also play an integral role in marketing the program as we will be using their contact list to raise awareness and encourage participation in The Farm 911 Emily Project.”
Although the signs are not yet available, Romanuk says that the County has spoken with numerous farmers and agriculture stakeholders and the response has been uniformly positive: “As a community there has been a great deal of support for this initiative.”
Romanuk encourages anyone with eligible land to explore the program and participate if possible: “By installing civic addressing signs you could increase first responders’ ability to locate an incident on your property in the event of an accident.”
