The City of Stratford and County of Perth Emergency Services with the Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group (CITIG) are pleased to host the following event designed to improve public safety interoperability in the Stratford-Perth County area:

1. Stratford-Perth CITIG Regional Forum -- Open Session

Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Time: 8:30 a.m. to noon

Cost: Free! Area partners are covering the cost of the facility rental and lunch

Location: Downie Optimist Hall, 3185 Road 122, St. Pauls, ON (10 minutes south of Stratford, off Hwy 7) ample free parking on site.

Invited: Any representative from public safety, responder or emergency management agencies, government, NGOs, utility, industry and academia interested in furthering public safety communications interoperability.

The objectives of the session include:

1. Increase awareness of the issue of public safety interoperability;
2. Present information on some of the various interoperability programs and projects currently taking place in Canada, the US, in Ontario and regionally;
3. Obtain feedback from local participants about the current interoperability situation, opportunities for information-sharing and outline next steps; and
4. Discuss next steps relevant to possible interoperability strategic planning in the Stratford-Perth region.

Agenda topics include:

• History of CITIG, Ongoing Projects, current issues
• Industry Canada and Spectrum Management in Canada
• Public Safety Canada to discuss the Communications Interoperability Strategy for Canada and related initiatives
• 700 MHz Spectrum and what it means for your agency
• Government Mobile Communications Branch, POINT Task Group and other Ontario Initiatives
• Regional Interoperability Case Studies
• Round table regional update

Download the preliminary agenda here (subject to change). The final agenda will be available here and e-mailed to registered participants about a week prior to the event.

Register for the Stratford-Perth CITIG Regional Forum

Space is limited -- Register Today!

2. Stratford-Perth Interoperability Planning Meeting -- Closed Session

Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Time: 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Location: Downie Optimist Hall, same as above.

Cost: Also free!

By invitation only: Closed for invited public safety officials, responders, emergency management agencies, government, utilities, NGOs & academia to focus on public safety interoperability planning at the provincial and regional level. The meeting will take a detailed look at interoperability in the Stratford-Perth area and feature facilitated sessions on collaboration on interoperability and on building a regional interoperability plan.

RSVP: If you have registered for the morning session and fit the criteria mentioned above, you will be invited to return for the afternoon session.

Background:

The Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group was created by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, Police Chiefs and Emergency Medical Services Chiefs of Canada to help improve public safety interoperability. This meeting is one of an ongoing series of regional workshops and great deal of ongoing activity on interoperability. Representatives from fire, police, EMS and emergency management agencies are urged to attend!

CITIG has been an integral contributor to the Communications Interoperability Strategy and Action Plan for Canada created by our friends at Public Safety Canada and is working with the Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management (SOREM), a Federal, Provincial and Territorial Committee, to move the Strategy and Action Plan forward.

Regional forum discussions include all aspects of interoperability -- not simply voice. These include, but are not limited to issues such as:

• Situational Awareness;
• Common Operating Pictures;
• Resource (Blue Force) Tracking;
• Geographical Information Systems;
• Data interoperability; and,
• Common Alerting.

This meeting is only designed to start, or in some cases further, the discussion around the broader area of public safety interoperability. We recognized that various Ontario agencies are already working on this issue. However, CITIG's experience across Canada has been that these discussions are often, out of necessity, "stove pipes" of interoperability and not necessarily focused on the "day-to-day" interoperability requirement between jurisdictions and disciplines such as between fire, EMS and police at a serious motor vehicle accident or a serious incident at a local industrial plant.

See you in Stratford!