Steve Newton

Steve Newton owns a small public safety consulting firm called Innomergence Solutions, based in Kamloops and is also a founding partner in the SAFER Network. He has been in the emergency management game since 1988 when he first started working on BC Wildfire Service crews. He worked his way up the operational ranks and at one point was the youngest Fire Zone Manager in the Province.

 

Steve has been Incident Commander, Operations Section Chief and Planning Section Chief on several Type 1 and 2 wildfire management teams, giving him a good operational background in applied Incident Command System in several provinces. Currently, he is one of a very few ICS Canada instructors recognized by EMCR here in BC. He is also one of a very few consultants who has operational experience in response site command, First Nations and municipal EOCs, provincial PREOCs, and large event recovery operations and planning.

 

He has international training and program development experience. He ran the BC Wildfire Service Aviation Management program for 4 years prior to moving over to EMBC as a Regional Manager in the Central Region office, where he worked for 7 years. Throughout his career, Steve has established an extensive network of emergency management practitioners, and trust-based relationships with First Nation communities and local governments that continue to this date.

 

Since June 2018, he has been busy with his consulting company Innomergence Solutions. His first project was establishing the recovery program for the Regional District Kootenay Boundary floods in the Grand Forks area. Approximately 70% of Steve’s established client base is First Nations at the community and tribal organization level. The remainder comprises local governments, provincial government agencies, federal government agencies, large utilities, private sector, and a few other interesting clients.

 

Steve has established himself in strategic planning for regional and tribal level collaboration models, and the applied use of the PPOST model for initial response and recovery planning for large emergency events. He has taken the original PPOST approach and modified it slightly to use the BCEMS goals as the basis for identifying priorities and establishing objectives, which then allows for identification of required resources and their sources, and the development of an org chart in very short order.

 

Steve actively explores converging technologies with a view towards the transformations they can bring to the emergency management world. His latest project includes creating truly digital emergency plans accessible through mobile apps and virtual reality environments. He is also actively pursuing an opportunity to bring AI and extended reality (AR + VR) to the training and exercising world within emergency management.