The City of Côte Saint-Luc announced today the opening of a training centre for its Public Safety Department, which will make its first responder service the first on the island of Montreal to have its own in-house training service.
The Public Safety Department is comprised of five divisions: Public Safety, Dispatch, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Volunteer Citizens on Patrol and Emergency Preparedness. The team consists of more than 200 employees and volunteers, all of whom have specific training needs to develop and maintain their skills.
The first group to benefit from this training centre will be our EMS first responders team. The City has obtained authorization from Urgences-santé, the agency locally responsible for overseeing pre-hospital activities in Montreal and Laval, to become an accredited training centre to deliver the Ministry of Health and Social Services first responder training program. This training program is mandatory in order to act as a first responder in Quebec.
Other municipal departments will also be able to benefit from the expertise of the training centre and its trainers, including training in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Once the project is up and running, the City of Côte Saint-Luc will explore the possibility of marketing this service to other organizations with similar needs.
Quotations
“The creation of a training centre gives us more flexibility in training EMS recruits, which is a direct benefit to the people who live and work in Côte Saint-Luc. I want to thank Philip Chateauvert and his team for making this possible.”
– Mitchell Brownstein, Mayor of Côte Saint-Luc
“We had envisioned this initiative since the beginning of my first term and I am proud to see this training centre come to fruition. It is our ongoing effort to always advance our first responder program. In fact, I am very much looking forward to being part of the first cohort of students today.”
– Oren Sebag, Councillor, City of Côte Saint-Luc
“The creation of this training centre represents a significant gain in autonomy for our department and fits perfectly with the transformation and optimization process we have begun. The project also respects our commitment to ensure responsible financial management as well as better control over the quality of the training offered to our stakeholders.”
– Philip Chateauvert, Director of the Côte Saint-Luc Public Safety Department