What is a community risk assessment?

In 2019, Ontario introduced new regulations under the Fire Prevention and Protection Act (O. Reg. 378/18: Community Risk Assessments) that require a Community Risk Assessment. A community risk assessment identifies, analyzes, evaluates and prioritizes fire-related risks to public safety within a community. This information will help determine the needs for fire protection services, and will also help inform the Fire Master Plan.

The Community Risk Assessment will help identify risks and community needs for fire services, now and in the future, based on factors defined in the legislation:

1. Geographic: the physical features of our community, including the nature and placement of things such as highways, rail systems, bridges, the river, and wildland-urban interfaces.
2. Building stock: the types of buildings in the community, the uses of the buildings in the community, the number of buildings of each type, the number of buildings of each use and any building-related risks known to the fire department.
3. Critical infrastructure: the capabilities and limitations of infrastructure such as electricity and water distribution, telecommunications, hospitals and airports.
4. Demographic: the composition of the community’s population, respecting matters relevant to the community, such as population size and dispersion, age, gender, cultural background, level of education, socioeconomic make-up, and transient population.
5. Hazard: the specific hazards in the community, including natural hazards, hazards caused by humans, and technological hazards.
6. Public safety response: the types of incidents responded to by other entities in the community (police, paramedics) and those entities’ response capabilities.
7. Community services: the types of services provided by other entities in the community, and those entities’ service capabilities.
8. Economic: the economic sectors affecting the community that are critical to its financial sustainability.
9. Past loss and event history: the community’s past emergency response experience, including the following analysis:
   1. The number and types of emergency responses, injuries, deaths and dollar losses.
   2. Comparison of the community’s fire loss statistics with provincial fire loss statistics.