Niagara declares eclipse emergency

[The Bread Guy]

I can see a certain increase in traffic, but this?

Niagara pre-emptively declares a state of emergency in anticipation of massive solar eclipse crowds

A million people are anticipated to head to the Niagara Region to experience the total solar eclipse on April 8. Keeping large crowds of spectators safe may pose a challenge for the region.

theconversation.com

Solar eclipse plan: With up to 1 million people expected to converge on Niagara, COWs are on the way

They have been meeting for over a year to work out the details on handling the massive crowd expected to descend on the region on April 8 for a once-in-a-lifetime event

www.stcatharinesstandard.ca

What's the emergency? Why Niagara declared a state of emergency for the eclipse

'It kind of blows Wallenda, Canal Days and the Fort Erie Friendship Festival and all the others out of the water in terms of the estimate'

www.stcatharinesstandard.ca

2024 Solar Eclipse

View the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Niagara Falls, Canada. In the spring of 2024, a solar eclipse is expected to travel across North America…

www.niagarafallstourism.com

 

[QV]

I can see a certain increase in traffic, but this?

Niagara pre-emptively declares a state of emergency in anticipation of massive solar eclipse crowds

A million people are anticipated to head to the Niagara Region to experience the total solar eclipse on April 8. Keeping large crowds of spectators safe may pose a challenge for the region.

theconversation.com

Solar eclipse plan: With up to 1 million people expected to converge on Niagara, COWs are on the way

They have been meeting for over a year to work out the details on handling the massive crowd expected to descend on the region on April 8 for a once-in-a-lifetime event

www.stcatharinesstandard.ca

What's the emergency? Why Niagara declared a state of emergency for the eclipse

'It kind of blows Wallenda, Canal Days and the Fort Erie Friendship Festival and all the others out of the water in terms of the estimate'

www.stcatharinesstandard.ca

2024 Solar Eclipse

View the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Niagara Falls, Canada. In the spring of 2024, a solar eclipse is expected to travel across North America…

www.niagarafallstourism.com

This is just part of the trend of certain politicians abusing authority. The Premier needs to shut this down right now.

 

[OldSolduer]

This is just part of the trend of certain politicians abusing authority. The Premier needs to shut this down right now.

Actually it is one of the most stupid things I have ever heard of. Eclipses happen. Muttonheads.

HEY we aren't living in Rome fighting the Carthaginians. No need for a lame state of emergency. The Good Idea Fairy has nothing on this idiots.

 

[GK .Dundas]

* Sigh * Just a couple of shopping days left for you to hoard toilet paper.....

 

[Remius]

Probably a Hail Mary shot at trying to get the province to pay for the extra police and city overtime etc.

Very lame and very obvious…

 

[OldSolduer]

Let the taunting begin!!!

 

[RangerRay]

Oh FFS…

Then again, with our lack of capacity to do anything out of the normal, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

“Oh my god! 10000 people are coming to town for a festival! Call a State of Emergency!”

“But we’ve been holding the same festival for 10 years…”

“Doesn’t matter! We’ve lost the inability to plan and summon extra resources! Panic!”

 

[Navy_Pete]

On one hand, this is kind of ridiculous in principle, but given how stupid people have repeatedly proven to be and why they wanted the extra resources that's not unreasonable. There are already a bunch of people that deliberately stare at the normal sun for 'health benefits' so wouldn't be surprised to see a bunch of eclipse blinded rugged individualists who know better than experts and have a 'cousin' who stared an eclipse and was fine. If even 1% of 1 million visitors are complete idiots, that's still a small town of mental midgets.

Maybe a better way to get surge resources than a state of emergency would be a good idea though.

 

[brihard]

I can see a certain increase in traffic, but this?

Niagara pre-emptively declares a state of emergency in anticipation of massive solar eclipse crowds

A million people are anticipated to head to the Niagara Region to experience the total solar eclipse on April 8. Keeping large crowds of spectators safe may pose a challenge for the region.

theconversation.com

Solar eclipse plan: With up to 1 million people expected to converge on Niagara, COWs are on the way

They have been meeting for over a year to work out the details on handling the massive crowd expected to descend on the region on April 8 for a once-in-a-lifetime event

www.stcatharinesstandard.ca

What's the emergency? Why Niagara declared a state of emergency for the eclipse

'It kind of blows Wallenda, Canal Days and the Fort Erie Friendship Festival and all the others out of the water in terms of the estimate'

www.stcatharinesstandard.ca

2024 Solar Eclipse

View the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Niagara Falls, Canada. In the spring of 2024, a solar eclipse is expected to travel across North America…

www.niagarafallstourism.com

So, actually reading this, I can understand the reasoning behind it. There’s a massive predictable disruption, and also potentially considerable unpredictable (known unknowns) disruption. The area around the falls is already pretty dense, there’s not a ton of room to get around at the best of times, and this could be an absolute crush of people. The point about people potentially chasing breaks in the weather is well founded. This isn’t a routine 10,000 people event, or even 100,000 people like they very occasionally see. This is potentially an order of magnitude still bigger.

I tried to find if any actual emergency orders have issued yet pursuant to this declaration but couldn’t find any; might just be ‘not yet’. I understand wanting to have things already in place to facilitate rapid adjustment to emerging critical incidents.

The additional temporary cell phone sites is wise. In major ‘shit goes wrong’ events, cell service is frequently overwhelmed and jams up, hindering emergency response.

 

[kratz]

Like any other job, when you do it right nobody notices or complains. If someone is complaining, they either don't have all the facts or haven't considered all the information. In this case, being prepared for a worst case scenario is the right thing to do. If nothing happens, great...and if the flag goes up, most things will be handled as there were plans in place.

 

[QV]

Declaring a state of emergency when no emergency exists is also illegal, according to this lawyer:

Christine Van Geyn: A solar eclipse is not an emergency and declaring it one is unlawful

Increased tourism combined with two minutes of darkness does not constitute a major danger. Ford should rescind Niagara's declaration

nationalpost.com

This is all over the top, and in the case of Niagara’s state of emergency, illegal. The region’s councillors should rescind their unnecessary invocation of the act, and if they don’t, Ontario Premier Doug Ford should rescind it for them, which he has the authority to do.

The statutory definition of an “emergency” in the EMCPA is not met by an eclipse. An emergency is “a situation or an impending situation that constitutes a danger of major proportions that could result in serious harm to persons or substantial damage to property and that is caused by the forces of nature, a disease or other health risk, an accident or an act whether intentional or otherwise.” An increase in tourism combined with less than three minutes of darkness is not an emergency. If it were, New Year’s Eve, the Toronto International Film Festival, many protests and other large community events would all be emergencies.

 

[KevinB]

On one hand, this is kind of ridiculous in principle, but given how stupid people have repeatedly proven to be and why they wanted the extra resources that's not unreasonable. There are already a bunch of people that deliberately stare at the normal sun for 'health benefits' so wouldn't be surprised to see a bunch of eclipse blinded rugged individualists who know better than experts and have a 'cousin' who stared an eclipse and was fine. If even 1% of 1 million visitors are complete idiots, that's still a small town of mental midgets.

Yes and Darwin is calling them…

Maybe a better way to get surge resources than a state of emergency would be a good idea though.

I’m still unsure how this is an issue at all.

It’s an eclipse, it’s not like it isn’t know or a freak event.

 

[kratz]

I have not heard anyone describing the solar eclipse as the hazard for this event. Instead, based on the 2017 experiences of states under the last eclipse, the large influx of human activity overwhelmed local capacity--see the portion of the definition "of an impending situation"--is the perceived hazard. Based on a Hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA), local government in Niagara Falls do not believe they are equipped to deal with this event on their own, thus the declaration.

 

[KevinB]

I have not heard anyone describing the solar eclipse as the hazard for this event. Instead, based on the 2017 experiences of states under the last eclipse, the large influx of human activity overwhelmed local capacity--see the portion of the definition "of an impending situation"--is the perceived hazard. Based on a Hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA), local government in Niagara Falls do not believe they are equipped to deal with this event on their own, thus the declaration.

Maybe just close some venues, and limit attendance in open areas…

If a City cannot support an activity on its own, then it should hold it, or allow it to be held.

 

[kratz]

Maybe just close some venues, and limit attendance in open areas…

If a City cannot support an activity on its own, then it should hold it, or allow it to be held.

Unless we declare martial law, unorganised events will occur for this event.

No State, Province or community in the path of the solar eclipse requested the privilege of hosting this event. All they can do is plan for it as best as possible, to mitigate the worst effects.

 

[KevinB]

Unless we declare martial law, unorganised events will occur for this event.

No State, Province or community in the path of the solar eclipse requested the privilege of hosting this event. All they can do is plan for it as best as possible, to mitigate the worst effects.

You can close or limit public access to government lands, to numbers that you can control.

 

[mariomike]

Looks like Apr. 8 will be a busy day on the GO train.

Eclipse at Niagara Falls in the afternoon . Then the Blue Jays home opener at 7 PM.

​

 

[Navy_Pete]

Yes and Darwin is calling them…

I’m still unsure how this is an issue at all.

It’s an eclipse, it’s not like it isn’t know or a freak event.

I don't think it's the eclipse itself; they are expecting about 1 million extra people to actually watch it there, which is about 9 times more than what they normally get for big events, and about 2.5 times the normal city population, so potentially just a massive influx of people to the general area.

For a bit of context they normally get 8.4 M tourists a year, so this is getting an entire months worth of people in the summer in a single day.

So more of a massive crowd control situation that they aren't equipped to deal with. The aren't just at the falls area itself, they are also expecting crowds down by lake Erie and surrounding areas, so expect traffic will be backed up for hours, full trains, busses, hotels etc.

One of the things that they apparently got with it was temporary cell phone tower add ons as they don't expect to have enough network capacity in the area, so even for a tourist area that regularly has big events this is an outlier.

So not really an emergency, but definitely a potentially massive surge of people they want to be prepared for. Which is I guess better than the alternative of doing nothing unusual and hoping for the best with existing resources, but isn't because of some kind of planned event like a concert or something which would include all of that in it's planning and funding.

I've been to a few things in that area where they have crowds in the 100k range and has been kind of crazy with wall to wall people, but they usually bring in police and EMS from other areas as well. I can't even imagine the chaos if they have 200 or 300k, let alone get close to 1M visitors.

 

[brihard]

You can close or limit public access to government lands, to numbers that you can control.

Sure, kinda/sorta. This is an issue that goes well beyond government lands, and which will seriously strain local and provincial emergency management resources.

Declaring a state of emergency when no emergency exists is also illegal, according to this lawyer:

Christine Van Geyn: A solar eclipse is not an emergency and declaring it one is unlawful

Increased tourism combined with two minutes of darkness does not constitute a major danger. Ford should rescind Niagara's declaration

nationalpost.com

This is all over the top, and in the case of Niagara’s state of emergency, illegal. The region’s councillors should rescind their unnecessary invocation of the act, and if they don’t, Ontario Premier Doug Ford should rescind it for them, which he has the authority to do.

The statutory definition of an “emergency” in the EMCPA is not met by an eclipse. An emergency is “a situation or an impending situation that constitutes a danger of major proportions that could result in serious harm to persons or substantial damage to property and that is caused by the forces of nature, a disease or other health risk, an accident or an act whether intentional or otherwise.” An increase in tourism combined with less than three minutes of darkness is not an emergency. If it were, New Year’s Eve, the Toronto International Film Festival, many protests and other large community events would all be emergencies.

A million people flooding into a pretty small area that's completely unequipped to handle such an influx is a danger of major proportions if not adequately prepared for. It's certainly an 'impending situation', it could result in serious harm to persons, and it's obviously caused by a force of nature.

TIFF brings in 700,000 (many of whom likely already live in or near there) spread over many days and over a major city, and can be adequately planned and provided for. It does not exceed the capacities of the involved municipality. Any of the NYE events int he GTA top out in the five figures. Any protests are generally four figures; potentially larger, but that's very rare. And in all of these cases we're talking about a city of nearly three million. Niagara is one sixth of that; the anticipated eclipse crowds will be more than double the actual population.

The lawyer who authored that editorial has been a lawyer for all of 12 years, briefly practiced for roughly two years commerical law, and since 2015 has worked entirely within a couple of conservative-leaning NGOs; the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and the Canadian Constitutional Foundation. Nothing in her CV suggests she has any real experience or expertise whatsoever in emergency management or the statutory or regulatory framework around same. Classic 'appeal to authority' fallacy that could easily fall in to some of the discussions we've had elsewhere on this site about credential-based 'expertise'. I'm going to suggest that the municipal and provincial counsel who advise governments on emergency measures are likely a bit more up to speed on this than she is.

 

[KevinB]

I don't think it's the eclipse itself; they are expecting about 1 million extra people to actually watch it there, which is about 9 times more than what they normally get for big events, and about 2.5 times the normal city population, so potentially just a massive influx of people to the general area.

For a bit of context they normally get 8.4 M tourists a year, so this is getting an entire months worth of people in the summer in a single day.

So more of a massive crowd control situation that they aren't equipped to deal with. The aren't just at the falls area itself, they are also expecting crowds down by lake Erie and surrounding areas, so expect traffic will be backed up for hours, full trains, busses, hotels etc.

One of the things that they apparently got with it was temporary cell phone tower add ons as they don't expect to have enough network capacity in the area, so even for a tourist area that regularly has big events this is an outlier.

So not really an emergency, but definitely a potentially massive surge of people they want to be prepared for. Which is I guess better than the alternative of doing nothing unusual and hoping for the best with existing resources, but isn't because of some kind of planned event like a concert or something which would include all of that in it's planning and funding.

I've been to a few things in that area where they have crowds in the 100k range and has been kind of crazy with wall to wall people, but they usually bring in police and EMS from other areas as well. I can't even imagine the chaos if they have 200 or 300k, let alone get close to 1M visitors.

I’m still backing Darwin