Perth County appoints deputy paramedic chief as community emergency management coordinator

When it comes to navigating a local emergency, it’s important to have the right person with the right connections and the right plans in place leading the response.

For Perth County, that person is now deputy paramedic services chief Chris Keyser after he was appointed community emergency management coordinator (CEMC) at county council’s March 6 meeting.

“I’ve been involved with emergency management for almost my entire time here,” Keyser said. “With various community emergency management coordinators over the years, I usually helped them out with their training. I’m a provincial (incident management system) instructor, so that’s the foundation for emergency management from the Ontario perspective. I have experience delivering the training and I think, too, just being in paramedic services kind of lends itself to managing emergencies.

“I’m definitely growth-minded, so I like doing new things, learning about the ins and outs of all of it, and having a better understanding. So, when I was approached about possibly taking this on, I was very excited about the opportunity.”

After cycling through several emergency management coordinators hired from outside the county organization over the past several years, Perth County CAO Lori Wolfe said senior staff was looking for someone with Keyser’s skills, experience, ability to teach, mindset and community connections. As it turned out, the only person who met those criteria and more was Keyser.

“We’ve had several great individuals in that role … and there was a vacancy in the fall, so we looked at that and said, ‘How can we utilize skills that we already have in our system?’ ” Wolfe said. “It’s a regional program for the county and each of the four local municipalities, and our partners in Stratford and St. Marys have their own CEMC, so Chris will work very closely with them. We were looking for a way to provide really good stability in the role because it is one that will often see changes; people will go on to bigger roles with more staff complement and things like that. So, we were looking for a way to find good stability with the role.

“This is an opportunity to use Chris’ background. We’re looking for somebody in that role that has the ability to train and educate the staff because it’s all about prevention. There’s curriculum development in that portfolio, there’s presentation, there’s heavy training, there’s heavy regulatory framework where you have to take the legislation, interpret and apply (it locally). So, when I’m looking over all the county departments … I need somebody who is going to take (this program) to the next level, and Chris stands out for that.”

In his current role, Keyser is heavily involved in both staff training and meeting regulatory requirements. At both the Perth County Paramedic Service and in previous positions he’s held with neighbouring paramedic services, Keyser has developed working relationships with all the key players he will be dealing with across the county, in Stratford and St. Marys, and in adjacent counties.

On top of all that, Wolfe said Keyser’s ability to calmly and effectively communicate with anyone, whether it’s during one of his training sessions or in a life-or-death emergency, is one of his most-valuable assets.

“I’ve been involved with paramedic services with the county for over 20 years now,” Keyser said. “I’ve moved up from working as a paramedic in Milverton to a paramedic working in Stratford to a commander on the road managing emergencies on the frontline to now I’m in the deputy chief role. My portfolio deals with regulatory compliance from the ambulance-service perspective … so regulatory compliance isn’t foreign to me. … I’ve led the public access defibrillator (PAD) program for the county since its inception 15 or 16 years ago. I placed the first ones, developed the first partnership agreements and, recently, Lori and I have been working on regionalizing that program … to make it more sustainable in the future. Through that, I have relationships with all of our partners from the Town of St. Marys to Stratford to all of our lower tiers, as well as at all of our county facilities.

“It’s nice taking a step into this role because a lot of the players are the same.”

For now, Keyser will continue in his current role as deputy paramedic services chief alongside his new role as community emergency management coordinator. He is already working with and training other members of the Perth County Paramedic Service who will gradually take over aspects of the deputy chief role with a goal of Keyser ultimately transitioning full-time to the CEMC role.

Part of that role, Wolfe explained, will also be focused on ensuring there is a succession plan for filling the CEMC role after Keyser and well into the future by providing current staff opportunities to train and take on extra responsibilities.