Helping Communities in Need
It’s hard to imagine that more water would be on the priority list during a flood, but safe drinking water is one of the most urgent. Labatt’s Disaster Relief Program makes sure it’s there when these natural emergencies happen.
Like crocuses, the rising of the Saint John River is a sign that spring has arrived in New Brunswick. Residents along its meandering path often spend April and May holding their collective breath as rain and melting ice and snow push water up and
over its banks. The river keeps nearby communities—including Saint John, Fredericton, Oromocto, Maugerville, and Sheffield—in suspense, always wondering if this year’s flood will create a new historic high-water mark.
In May 2018, it came close, with what local residents call a “100 years flood.” With little warning, the river quickly overflowed, covering some roads with more than a metre of water. Sandra Day, a volunteer at the Maugerville Community Centre, says neighbours joked that “about a five-mile stretch of land was dry, and the rest was under water.” At its peak, the flood closed forty-seven roads, including the Trans-canada Highway, and affected nearly 5,000 homes.
Like all natural disasters, floods cause havoc in many ways: washing out roads, inundating houses, and contaminating wells and reservoirs. The water sweeps up all manner of debris as it rises, and sewage systems back up, making water-borne illnesses a dangerous possibility. Ensuring that residents have adequate safe drinking water is a high priority for officials during the recovery phase, and volunteers are key to getting this and other resources to affected citizens.
As the waters crested during the first two weeks of May 2018, the employees of Labatt Breweries in Atlantic Canada knew what they could do to help residents in their time of need. And so the company’s Disaster Relief Program was deployed for the eighth time since its inception in 2013. The goal was simple: Deliver 100,000 cans of drinking water to affected areas along the Saint John River. The logistics, however, were more complicated—the donation needed to arrive within 48 hours without putting the delivery crew in harm’s way in the process.
Nick Cairns, distribution manager at the Labatt warehouse in Mississauga, Ontario, is a veteran of several Labatt Disaster Relief Program deployments. When the alert comes, he works with a team of ten to fifteen company employees to produce, pack, transport, and deliver canned water to the affected area. “I go to my team members and ensure that the warehouse preps [the shipment], transportation lines up with the timeline that is needed, and that delivery takes place,” he says.
There’s no special disaster squad on standby—just regular employees in key departments, such as production, distribution, logistics, and
transportation, who set aside their regular duties and jump into action. Cairns says that the team can usually get water into recipients’ hands 48 to 72 hours after the alert is issued. “We’re always ready,” he says. “When we receive the word, a team of people takes it up as a priority and ensures that we execute the plan as quickly and safely as possible.”
A cache of disaster-relief water is kept on hand at Labatt’s Mississauga warehouse, but if demand outstrips supply, the company’s London, Ontario, brewery quickly adjusts its production line and begins canning water instead of beer. Then the trucks are loaded, routes are selected, and drivers head to their destination, sometimes thousands of kilometres away.
For the May 2018 flood, two Labatt transport trucks made the 14-plushour drive from Mississauga to New Brunswick. There, one of the trucks was met by Jody Price, chief of the Oromocto Fire Department, which provides fire protection to about 25,000 people in the town of Oromocto and surrounding rural communities of Burton/geary, Rusagonis/waasis, Lincoln, Maugerville, and Sheffield. His team of career and volunteer firefighters helped unload the cans of drinking water and deliver them to relieved residents, who stopped by the station or headed to the Maugerville Community Centre, where Day and her fellow volunteers were handing out donations.
As floodwaters receded, evacuees began to clean up and get back to normal life. Recovery took months, as many still couldn’t safely drink from the contaminated water supply. Boil-water orders remained in effect in some areas, while others required lengthy chlorination procedures to kill dangerous bacteria that had taken up residence in wells and sand points along the river. The 100,000 cans of water from Labatt sustained hundreds of residents through the process, alleviating at least one worry—and cost—in a sea of repairs and restorations. “Everything that was donated was very much appreciated, and we passed it out for a good long while,” says Day.
The Labatt Disaster Relief Program has been activated for a wide variety of natural disasters: the devastating forest fires in Fort Mcmurray, Alberta; a large-scale oil spill in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; drought conditions in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and an intense ice storm in New Brunswick. Labatt Breweries plans to carry on this tradition of helping communities across the country, anytime the call comes in. “We take a lot of pride in what we do, helping people in need,” says Cairns. “Being able to support others [through this program] is something we cherish.”