A training exercise will be taking place on Thursday, December 9, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Block A of the DNA Building, and emergency vehicles will be parked in front of the building, though no sirens or lights will be in use.

Trent University along with community partners including OMNR, the City of Peterborough Emergency Management Office (EMO), Peterborough Regional Health Care Centre (PRHC), Peterborough County Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Peterborough Fire Services and Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Services will be participating in the exercise.

Students and staff will not be affected by the exercise. University operations will continue as per normal. There may be some disruption of access to the DNA Building Block A parking lot during this time, but it should be brief. It is not anticipated that the hallway in Block A of the DNA Building will be blocked off. 

The date of December 9 for the exercise was selected to minimize interruptions to exam schedules – no exams are occurring in this part of the building at that time.

The reason for the training exercise is that the pending certification of the Indigenous Pathogen Containment Level Three (IPCL3) Lab is an excellent opportunity to practice emergency procedures and engage in relationship building with community partners in a unique emergency response scenario.

There will be a media briefing after the training session. A daily news story, with photos about the training exercise will be published on the Trent website after the training exercise is completed.

An IPCL3 Lab is certified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to work with approved indigenous pathogens in a safely contained environment for the purpose of research significant to wildlife and wildlife biology. As the IPC Level 3 lab is not operational yet and no pathogens have been brought into the space, there is no risk of pathogen release during this exercise.