The District of Muskoka, along with area municipalities, emergency response services and other stakeholders, is in the process of hashing out short- and long-term plans to better address emergencies.
The move was prompted by some major weather events in 2024 and early 2025. In late November and early December of 2024, South Muskoka received 140 centimetres of snow in a short period of time. There were major power outages. Highways became impassable, vehicles were stuck in deep snow, and snowmobiles removed people from the highway. The Town of Gravenhurst declared a State of Emergency and provided accommodation for the travelling public.
In late March 2025, Muskoka got hammered again by a major ice storm. The storm caused significant power and communication outages and road access challenges and on March 30, 2025, the District of Muskoka declared a State of Emergency that lasted approximately two weeks.
“Both events required exceptional collaboration between municipalities, departments, and non-governmental organizations to minimize the impacts on people and property. Through this collaboration there were successes, as well as lessons learned,” noted a report by Stuart McKinnon, Deputy Chief of Paramedic Services and Emergency Management, to a joint health and planning services committee last month.
In June 2025, the District hired a consultant to review its response to both weather events and its Emergency Plan, assess successes, identify areas for improvement, and provide recommendations.
The consultant provided 19 recommendations for improvement. A synopsis is provided below:
- Update Emergency Plan for clarity and ensure all relevant staff have appropriate training
- Develop and/or update Business Continuity Plans for all District programs, including updating on-call/standby procedures.
- Develop waste management emergency plan.
- Consider implementing an electronic system to facilitate the updating and internal communication of emergency plans and contact information.
- Consider modifying the structure of the District’s Emergency Response Plan to an Incident Management System (IMS) structure.
- Consider adding additional resources dedicated to Emergency Planning and Emergency Management.
- Clarity and coordination of emergency plans and procedures.
- Enhance the emergency response coordination with the three local hydro utilities.
- Develop mutual aid agreements with local and adjacent municipalities.
- Develop a standby power plan for District facilities, including a related fuel supply plan.
- Work with other agencies to develop highway closure and emergency detour protocols (Highway 11 and Highway 400).
- Enhance emergency preparedness infrastructure at Muskoka District Airport.
- Consider developing a road right-of-way tree maintenance program and/or policy.
- Develop communication “templates” in advance of high-probability emergencies.
- Establish group messaging/communication tools for emergency use.
- Ensure telephone “hotline” is readily available for future emergency use.
- Clarify the criteria and process for using various “alerting” approaches.
- Enhance two-way social media communication capacity during an emergency.
- Enhance public education/awareness regarding personal emergency preparedness.
District commissioner of engineering and public works, James Steele, revisited the issue at the Nov. 19, 2025, Engineering and Public Works Committee. He said stakeholders had met to talk about how they will be better prepared for this winter season.
Committee members noted that many of those stuck along Hwy. 11 and side roads last year were people who live outside the area trying to get through the highway. Discussions ensued about getting the message out to a wider area when Muskoka is experiencing a severe weather emergency. District of Muskoka Chair Jeff Lehman said, “There’s nothing like seeing somebody who thought they were going to be able to drive to North Bay and slide off the road and then get angry about it on Facebook. I mean, really? But let’s turn that around and see if we can help prevent that problem by using some of these tools, and there are some out there that are social media-based that can get the word out to out-of-towners to say, ‘today is not the day’…,”
Steele noted that some successes were seen during the subsequent ice storm by using services like Municipal 511, which automatically update Google Maps and Waze, “to perhaps get them [drivers] to make different choices.” He also said staff are looking at automatic signage that can be remotely activated to note road closures. “At least they can stop before they go too far,” said Steele.
District staff will be returning with a progress report.
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