Closure or Reduced Service Level Policy

Purpose

Weather conditions or other situations can, at times, create difficult travel conditions or subsequent interference with the normal business operations/services of the County. The following outlines the County Policy with regard to County operations/services during inclement weather conditions or other situations.

Critical Services Definition

For the purpose of this Policy, “critical services” are deemed to include:

• Roads, Fleet, Water and Wastewater (specific personnel as required)
• Norview Lodge (specific personnel as required)
• Fire and Paramedic Services (specific personnel as required)

In addition, other employees may be deemed as “critical services” as determined by a General Manager, in consultation with the CAO, in emergency situations.

Implementation procedure

The CAO will continue to make the determination respecting the closure of Norfolk County offices.

In severe or extended situations, the County’s Emergency Control Group (ECG) would be invoked to deal with these circumstances.

Localized event

In situations where events are localized to a smaller area of the County such as: isolated power outages, the relevant General Manager in consultation with the Chief Emergency Warden and CAO will refer to the Emergency Procedures for Norfolk County Facilities to determine if the facility should be closed or if staff can be reassigned to work in other facilities that may be open and unaffected by the event. The Mayor is to be kept apprised of the situation. In some cases, where the duration of a power outage cannot be determined, the announcement of closure or re-assignment, including working remotely in accordance with policy HR 30 Working from Anywhere, will occur in as timely a fashion as possible.

In a situation where staff from an individual department leave the office/workplace during the workday due to power outage, weather, etc., resulting in less than the full scope of services being delivered, the department must be considered closed and contact ServiceNorfolk, in accordance with EBS-56 Corporate Notice of Service Disruption Policy.

Staff whose office is located in Haldimand County should listen to the local radio station or check the Haldimand County website to determine if they are closed.

Impending Weather Condition E-mail Notification

Although not every type of incident can be predicted, below is an example e-mail to use when staff are inquiring about the situation:

A severe weather warning has been issued for (location/date). Please be advised that the CAO will be in consultation with the Operations Division and Hydro One early in the morning to assess the situation. Any closures or suspension of services, if deemed necessary, would be in accordance with the Closure or Reduced Service Level Policy (CAO-01).

If there are any suspensions or closures, they will be announced starting at 6:30 a.m. Staff are directed to check their email for additional communication from Norfolk County. Employees shall be advised to reference the local media and corporate social media channels for current information throughout the day.