Clear Sky Consulting

Helping Communities and Organizations Build Resilience

Our communities are being impacted by climate change, changing land use and aging infrastructure leading to emergencies that happen with more frequency and severity than ever before. Fortunately, Clear Sky Consulting has the experience, knowledge and tools to mitigate, manage and reduce the effects of these hazards, ensuring your community has effective systems in place to minimize potential harm and build resilience.

Your Community Comes First

Who We Are

About Clear Sky Consulting

With over 25 years of public safety experience, Clear Sky Consulting is well-equipped to assist with your emergency management planning, preparedness, response and recovery capabilities. We work with municipal and provincial governments, First Nations, nonprofits and other organizations to help you prepare for, manage and recover from emergency events. We lead highly effective, inclusive teams that provide robust support for clients with collaboration, insight and professionalism. Working with us will help to ensure emergencies and disasters are handled with care, empathy and expertise.

Projects undertaken by Clear Sky Consulting must provide more than financial benefit and have a net-positive effect on the organizations and individuals involved. As such, we undertake each project with two underlying principles:

(1) Emergency management planning directly increases the resilience of the communities involved, and value is maximized with direct input and local involvement from those affected by the project.

(2) Emergency managers, responders and organizational staff and volunteers who manage these programs must receive significant value from the project, beyond the completion of the project. Emergency management is stressful, and can take a significant toll on the mental and physical health of these individuals — we will strive to support them in any way we can.

Ask Us How We Can Help You Build Resilience in the Face of Future Emergencies

“I acknowledge and respect that I live, work and am in relation with the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Ktunaxa, Syilx and Sinixt Nations. I was born on Nakoda Sioux traditional territory in what is now known as Northern Alberta, where I met my wife, Nicole. We relocated from Edmonton to our current home at the foot of the Selkirk Mountains in Warfield, drawn to the area’s close connection to nature as avid hikers, bikers and skiers. I appreciate the care the First Nations, who have called this land home since time immemorial, have shown the area, I acknowledge the harm that colonization has brought to Indigenous Nations on this land, and I seek to understand, reconcile and build relationships with those who were here first. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to live and raise my daughter on these lands.”

—Chris Marsh

About Chris

Chris Marsh is an emergency management professional with over 25 years of public service and public safety experience. He founded Clear Sky Consulting in July of 2020 with the intent of supporting rural communities and First Nations across Western Canada in their emergency management planning.

Prior to starting his own business, Chris spent 3 years as the Manager of Emergency Programs with the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, 14 years with the Ministry of Environment and Emergency Management BC and over 25 years with various fire departments across Western Canada. Throughout this time, Chris led organizations through many emergency events, including wildfire evacuations, hazardous materials spills, landslides, severe weather events and multiple flooding emergencies. Chris was also a key member of the Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Temporary Emergency Assignment Management System (TEAMS) for almost 10 years.

Chris knows how to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

What We Do

We want to help build resilience by providing emergency management planning specific to vulnerable communities across Western Canada and fostering professional relationships that exist beyond the submission of a final report. By taking the time to form relationships and collaborate with our clients, we can apply their input to each project so that our proposals and project deliverables directly benefit the communities and emergency managers we work with.

Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (HRVA)

The HRVA is intended to inform communities regarding hazards and related risks from which they can make risk-based decisions related to identified vulnerabilities. It is a key foundational component of any holistic emergency management program and will include recommendations and solutions for preventing or mitigating hazards; appropriately preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters and emergencies; and maintaining continuity of organizational operations.

Emergency Management Planning

Experience, empathy, expertise and empowerment all contribute to highly effective, high-functioning project teams that bring significant value to emergency management requirements. Our Emergency Management Planning services approach communities holistically, and tailor recommendations to their specific environment, resources and needs. Plans are customized according to the specific nature of each community or organization, and we work hard to ensure our plans are immediately useful in an emergency.

Areas of support:

Emergency plan reviews, audits, development and refinement
Evacuation route planning
Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) facility and operational development, advisement, audits and enhancement
Development of EOC operational plans and quick start guides
Emergency event investigation, research, policy development and recommendations
Strategic emergency program assessment and guidance

Emergency Response & Recovery Services

Every community has its own unique situations and challenges that can cause complications when faced with an emergency event. We work with clients to identify, evaluate and make recommendations for any hazards, risks or vulnerabilities their community may face.

Areas of support:

Pandemic support, including the development of plans, procedures and systems to keep staff and clients safe and organizations operational
Flood Planning, including the development of flood response plans, incident action plans and onsite flood emergency response and management
Incident Response, including acting within an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in any capacity
Disaster Recovery Plans, including development of disaster recovery plans, disaster recovery teams, leading disaster recovery and disaster recovery pre-planning
After Action Reviews analyzing incident response and recovery, and providing collaborative feedback following disaster response, training sessions and other events

Emergency Management Training and Exercises

We work with clients to develop training and exercise plans for emergency management staff and volunteers. We can work together to inform, educate and care for community members both in their work, and in the self-care and mental health work crucial to longevity and resilience in the field.

Let’s Build Resilience Together

Affiliations & Partnerships

Clear Sky Consulting is a proud member of the Strategic Alliance For Enhanced Resilience (SAFER) Network, a consortium of consultants and experts collaborating on and creating teams that provide customized safety-related services and plans in a number of fields.

When required, we partner with other consultants to form dynamic and responsive teams. These professionals and organizations help us undertake more complex projects while keeping overhead costs low. The groups include other emergency management consultants, flood and fire consultants, industry-specific experts, GIS consultants, engineering firms, mental health and social science professionals, and others.

Portfolio

Clear Sky has been privileged to work with the following progressive organizations to assist with their emergency management needs.

Regional District of Kootenay Boundary

Developed an extensive disaster recovery plan for the organization
Authored a disaster recovery final report after the 2018 Boundary flood, based on two years of intensive recovery operations
Contributed to a review of the district’s Flood Response Plan

Kootenay Boundary Community Services Cooperative

Developed policies, procedures, flow charts, quick reference guides and other materials to support member organizations during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic
Audited and reviewed COVID-19 Safety Plans and other worker care documents for a variety of organizations

Fraser Basin Council

Participated in a project that investigated flood response and recovery practices within BC and across Canada to aid in the development of flood management strategies and policy
Authored a report on flood recovery practices and provided high-level recommendations

Ktunaxa Nation Council

Currently providing emergency management advice, guidance and support to four First Nations communities in southeast BC
Ongoing general emergency management support
Reviewed and rewrote the emergency management and response plans for three communities
Provided grant writing and project management support

Williams Lake First Nation

Developed an Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (HRVA) for this interior First Nation community
Currently undertaking an emergency plan and program review, gap analysis and providing mitigation recommendations

Cariboo Regional District (CRD)

Supported the CRD Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) through the 2021 wildfire season by way of a deployment to manage the Planning Section of the EOC
Led a strategic emergency program review for the organization, which resulted in 46 specific recommendations and board of director approval to hire 3 new staff

Community Futures Greater Trail

Consulted with dozens of organizations, community leaders and a team of supporters to develop a community-initiated economic resilience report and plan, which is a road map for business support organizations to follow during emergency events or significant economic impacts

Sumas First Nation

Consulted over 50 external agencies, staff members, elected officials and community members to inform research and direction for emergency management projects
Developed a Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (HRVA), in conjunction with an Emergency Management Plan and Emergency Response Plan

Capital Regional District

Assisted the Capital Regional District, in partnership with members of the SAFER Network, in developing a mandated exercise program that tested the response to potential dam emergencies, as well as interagency cooperation among South Vancouver Island municipalities, the Emergency Operations Centre, a Department Operations Centre and first responder organizations

Contact Us

Your Resilience Comes First: Let’s Reduce the Impact of Future Emergency Events on Your Community

Chris Marsh

Principal, Clear Sky Consulting Ltd.

250.231.7526 | chris@clearskyconsulting.ca

688 Forrest Drive, Trail, BC V1R 2H6