It's not often that you make a plan and hope to never use it, but that is exactly what happened at City Hall yesterday when mayors, reeves and others representing RMs, towns, villages and the City of Estevan met at City hall to sign into effect the Mutual Aid Agreement. 

"It's really comforting to know that all our surrounding RMs, communities, towns," explained Emergency Management Organization (EMO) Coordinator, Helen Fornwald, "now just a phone call, we can be there for each other. And knowing what each other's resources are is a big help. And it's a time saver."

The plan allows for sharing of resources in time of an emergency and outlines guidelines to how react in those types of situations. 

It also allows everyone to be up to date on safety training.

"We're actually the southeast corner training for emergency management for this area."

"We want to make sure everyone has the ICS (Incident Command System) 100 Level so we're all speaking the same language on the page because in a disaster, we all need to be talking the same language."

Fornwald adds that putting together a plan like this took a lot of time and effort.

"We took a look at it and it was completely outdated, after the 2011 flooding hit. And some communities were asking for help and we didn't have anything current. So we took a look at that and brought in the parties together, and there's actually been new parties that have joined since then. Getting that many people in the room together, sitting down, making sure that everybody's need are met and heard and understood and formulating a written plan together, took a little bit of time."

"There were lots of hours that went into it and it was a team effort. All the parties involved that are signing, their expertise and help was truly appreciated."

In an event of an evacuation, Estevan Comprehensive High School will be used. Should not facility not be available, the Leisure Centre will used. 

READ MORE: Fire Chief's Civic Report, Updating Mutual Aid Agreement Highlight Council