It was a big day for Northern College and for the community on Monday.

Northern College officially opened the doors to its new Integrated Emergency Services Complex, a state of the art facility that provides training and services for police, fire and paramedic services. The new 4,000 square foot facility is 15 years in the making, with developments beginning in the early 2000’s. Northern College President, Fred Gibbons, says he’s very proud of the work that’s led up to this point.

“A sense of pride and accomplishment and a sense of relief,” Gibbons said when asked how he feels about the opening. “Pride and accomplishment because this has been a tremendous team effort. Not just over the construction period, but literally for about the last 15 years, this has been an idea that’s been germinating.”

The new Fire, Paramedic and Police facility has an impressive amount of technology that will help train new students and professionals in each field. The Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS) helps prepare all three areas of service for any situation, and helps them work together at a simulated emergency scene. This system is the first simulator of its kind in Canada and is being used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The facility also has a mock courtroom, jail cell, interview room, finger print rooms and scenario labs.

The Grand Opening of the new Complex involved a ceremony with police officers, fire fighters and paramedics in attendance. After a performance by the Timmins Police Drums and Pipes, guests heard from former Mayor of Timmins, Tom Laughren, Dale Tonnelli, on behalf of Charlie Angus and Gilles Bisson, Mayor Steve Black and Mayor-Elect George Pirie, Dr. Fred Gibbons, Fire Chief Normand Beauchamp, and Detachment Commander St. Sgt. Dan Foy. There was also a guest speaker invited to address the big crowd at the opening. Morgan Wright, an internationally recognized expert on cyber-security strategy, cyber-terrorism, identity theft and privacy, spoke on the importance of such a facility in times of increased emergency situations and global threats.

The idea behind this new complex has been developing for the past 15 years, and it finally got traction in 2016, when senior levels of government came through with funding. The development included input from students, teachers and professionals from emergency service programs, ensuring that this facility is the best in Ontario, and possibly Canada.

“There’s nothing else that would compare at an Ontario College,” said Gibbons, “Perhaps not even across Canada, but certainly in Ontario.”

A major idea behind the construction of this facility is that police, fire and paramedic services should be working together in emergency situations.

“The idea behind the Integrated Services building,” Gibbons explains, “is that these emergency services need to be able to work together and be able to coordinate their efforts much more effectively and not be working in silos.”

 

 

 

Gibbons says this new facility will raise the bar for emergency services education in Ontario.

“We have some programs with very strong reputations throughout the province, for the quality and caliber of teaching and the curriculum,” he said. “Where we let our students down was with inferior facilities. We’ve changed that today.”

The new facility has hopes of drawing more students to Northern College, both domestically and internationally. And the potential is not just to see post secondary students grow.

“This is a facility to help those who are employed professionally,” Gibbons said, “or those who volunteer their time to the emergency services to gain superior and advanced training that they otherwise would not be able to access or they would have to travel to great distances to access. Now we can do it all here.”

This new Integrated Emergency Services Complex is sure to help educate and train those in emergency services here in Ontario, and will bring pride and success to this community for years to come.

“Being able to bring the professional forces together in our training facility,” Gibbons said, “to share with them; that’s a win-win. Not only for Northern College but for the community.”

 

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