A Press Conference following the FPT Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Emergency Management

Remarks by
The Honourable Stockwell Day
Minister of Public Safety

Halifax, Nova Scotia
January 9, 2008
As delivered

Thank you Minister (Jamie Muir) It is always wonderful to be here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Your great assistance in co-hosting and the participation of provincial and territorial ministers have led to what I think has been a successful conference.

We have covered a lot of ground. If I can just briefly cover on some of the main items we discussed. For example, the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements, which flow from the federal government to the provincial and territorial governments following a disaster. We have identified that the process needs to be streamlined at all levels. We need to streamline the technology and our commitment to doing that will help improve the speed at which we settle claims. We want to make sure those are done in an expedited manner.

We have also expanded the number of funds that can be applied to certain areas and identified others areas as qualified to be covered that possibly weren't covered before. That is going to make it easier for people in times of tragedy. I am pleased with this accomplishment.

Next there is mitigation, which means doing things ahead of a possible catastrophe such as building up a system of dams or dykes to stop flooding in key areas where you know annually there's going to be flooding. We have made some steps forward in being able now to officially recognize that the benefit of mitigation is prevention.

The provinces and territories will now be able to apply under the Building Canada Fund for funding of structural mitigation projects. Provincial and territorial ministers have indicated to me that they would like to see a separate dedicated fund for that. We have taken it this far, and I certainly will share the concern with my colleagues. It is a step forward. I'm glad to see there will be an increased recognition of the potential for doing work before something strikes.

In the area of a public alerting system at times of emergency – a system that would be pan-Canadian – we have made progress. We have reduced what we think is the length of time that it is going to take to have a national public alerting system to warn people of a possible disaster. There is already in place across the country and in provinces the capability to quickly inform citizens who may be at risk of an impending storm or another type of disaster. The process that we are now looking at putting in place would speed up the effect of having all media sources plugged into a national public alerting system.

Finally I want to speak about the area of identifying critical infrastructure. We all know that subject to either natural or unnatural disasters there are certain elements of infrastructure around the country that we want to make sure are properly prepared or protected from a possible disaster, either natural or man-made. We are officially embarking on a consultation process with the provinces and territories to go out to the areas around the country and to make sure that various facilities and areas of sensitivity have in place adequate systems to prevent damages that may occur at those times.

These are some of the main areas that we discussed at our meeting. We will also continue to pursue other collaborative initiatives that will take further towards having a country that is as safe and as protected as it possibly can be.

I would again like to thank my colleagues for their collaboration and dedication to helping to ensure that our country and our citizens are safe and secure.

Thanks so much for your interest. Thank you again to my co-host, and we are open to any questions you may have.