National Conference on Anti-Terrorism
(CollaBoRatioN)

Remarks made by
The Honourable Stockwell Day
Minister of Public Safety

Calgary, Alberta
November 2, 2007
As delivered

It's great to be in Calgary, and I thank all of you for being here today.

When you think about the collective experience in this room, it's quite incredible. I respect the years of service among you all and the great training in protecting our citizens. You men and women have so much to offer in terms of advice and counsel and you're here to share that experience and to learn more over the next few days. I encourage you to be active participants and to bring your experience and your know-how to the table.

Congratulations to everyone who worked hard in putting this conference together; you have brought together an impressive array of speakers. The quality of presenters is enviable.

You know better than most that you're faced with challenges every day. To be involved in the type of work that you do, I think that's a unique calling. You train to be prepared to handle things that you hope actually never happen. You know that there are always risks out there, and that Canada is not immune to risk, such as natural disasters or terrorism.

Working together and being focused on the goal of safety and security is achievable, and the work that you do is key to that.

For any level of government, the safety of its citizens is a number one priority. At the federal level, we're talking about our federal police force, the RCMP; our intelligence agency, CSIS; and all of our border agencies. On the policing front, we've made some pretty significant commitments, and we're following through with them. We've committed 1,000 more RCMP personnel across the country above and beyond the hiring that is already going on, and we've expanded the training facilities in Regina, at Depot.
We've also committed 2,500 more municipal officers across the country, through a cost-shared program with the provinces. Calgary will benefit from that.

We also want borders that are safe, and borders that will allow for rapid travel back and forth of our citizens and of goods. There are more than 90 million crossings of the border in a year. Border officials need all the resources that they can possibly have to do the job effectively and to make sure that our security is protected.

When it comes to emergency planning, our Emergency Management Act is there to make sure that at the federal level, the lines of responsibility are very clear when it comes to emergencies. Preparation and training and planning, of course, help if an incident does take place. The more you've planned for it, the better prepared you're going to be. And so we just put that legislation in place. That's at the federal level.

When an incident takes place at the municipal level, it's the first responders who are going to be on the scene first. You would know more than anybody what it's like when you arrive at a scene full of confusion and chaos. That's why we're encouraging our citizens to be as self-sufficient and prepared during the first 72 hours of an emergency, which frees up the responders to help those who are in more serious condition who cannot help themselves. To do this, we're promoting the 72 hours campaign.

Some of you have been involved in helping us with that campaign over the last year. We're also working with the private sector and retail outlets to make the 72 Hours kits available—kits that would help people through the first 72 hours of a disaster. Those scenes are things that you prepare for, or train for; scenes that you hope you never see, but encounter time and again.

I was able to attend a USAR [Heavy Urban Search and Rescue] training event just outside of Calgary here about a year ago. It replicated an urban scene with collapsed freeways, crushed cars. And even though it was a training exercise, it was shocking to realize the horror that people face, and how the incredible work you do, and the training can make a difference.

Several days after 9/11 took place, I travelled with our former Prime Minister and toured through the site with New York City's former Mayor, Mr. Giuliani. Fires were still burning. Firefighters were still finding their comrades, even as we were there in the rubble. It was a scene that I will never forget. You have seen some of those scenes and saw firsthand the years of training that those first responders had taken, which really equipped them to do the best that they possibly could in a situation of unimaginable horror.

On the emergency management planning end of bringing in the Act, we've also established a framework agreement so that we can be as equipped as we can be to deal with times and moments like that should they arise.

We are active participants in international exercises. Some of you are familiar with the recent top-off exercise with the UK, USA and with Australia where we actually get to act through a disaster situation and test things at every level, such as radio communication and the ability to work together in teams under intense pressure. All of these things are so important in the training component of what we do.

In the last year's budget, we committed an extra million dollars on top of what we already do for CBRN training. More than 5,000 people from across the country are trained for CBRN, and there is much more to do.

These are the realities that we face. It's an honor to work closely with individuals like you and to see what's going on internationally. I was at the meeting of G8 Security Ministers that took place in Moscow a couple of years ago, and I got to see the training that goes on in other countries. Last year, I saw the same thing in Germany. And each jurisdiction brings different expertise to the table.

I can say that from what I have seen and what we have to offer here, that our expertise and our people are as any of the best in the world. And when I meet with people in your line of work from other countries, they always comment on what they learn when they come here to Canada. They always comment on the level of commitment and dedication.

And while we sometimes think in terms of the technologies and the capabilities that we don't have, many of these countries that are highly sophisticated talk about the capabilities and technologies that we do have.

I want to congratulate you for what you've done so far, and recognize with you that there is more to do when it comes to keeping our nation safe.

As I've said, no country is immune from risk, but we need to be—and we are—prepared. We will continue to prepare ourselves at higher levels all the time so that our citizens can enjoy the safety and the security that they expect.

I want to thank each and every one of you for your courage and dedication, and for being willing to be the first ones on the scene or being involved in the prevention area. When others are fleeing an area, you are rushing to that area, and that means a lot to us. Thank you for being there.

Thank you.