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 Firefighters respond to a chemical spill as part of a mock terrorist attack during Exercise Gold, Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit’s security training for the Olympics. The scenario featured a rally supporting an Olympic team when terrorists put a chemical into a snow making machine, infecting everyone. (Carmine Marinelli, 24 Hours) |
Key frontline emergency service workers were nowhere to be seen during day two of Exercise Gold, the full-scale security dress rehearsal for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
B.C. Ambulance Service Supt. Pascal Rodier stood and watched as Richmond firefighters and hazardous materials crews mopped up after a mock attack at the former Steveston secondary school site in Richmond. Rodier said he was not authorized to comment, but B.C. Integrated Public Safety Unit director John Oakley said paramedics are part of Exercise Gold, which runs until Friday.
"This is one aspect of the exercise," Oakley said. "There's 46 other command centres. They are represented at that level of play. But they have to remain operational."
On Monday, Health Services minister Kevin Falcon announced striking paramedics would be ordered to return to full service with a one-year contract and three per cent pay raise retroactive to April 1.
CUPE 873, the paramedics' union, said yesterday VANOC medical services director Dr. Mike Wilkinson told BCAS CEO Lee Doney in a September memo that VANOC needed Games-time ambulance services confirmed by Oct. 1, including a guarantee of no service disruption.
Falcon said at a Monday news conference that the back-to-work order was related to H1N1, not the Olympics.
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Tuesday's scenario involved a toxic material placed in a snow-making machine at a radio station pep rally on the day of a Team Canada hockey game.
Various teenagers were hosed down by firefighters and wrapped in blankets. One woman portrayed a pregnant woman going into labour.