Government Operations Centre
The Government Operations Centre (GOC) is Canada's strategic-level operations centre. It is the hub of a network of operations centres run by a variety of federal departments and agencies including the RCMP, Health Canada, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, CSIS and National Defence. The GOC also maintains contact with the provinces and territories as well as international partners such as the United States and NATO. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, gathering information from other operations centres and a wide variety of sources, both open and classified, from around the world.
The GOC deals with developing, imminent or actual, natural disaster or man-made activity that threatens the safety and security of Canadians or the resiliency of Canada's critical infrastructure.
Learn more about the GOC below:
Coordinating the national response
As Canada's strategic-level operations centre, the GOC's primary function is to provide coordination and direction on behalf of the Government of Canada in response to an emerging or occurring event affecting the national interest. Municipalities are responsible for tactical issues, such as deciding how many fire trucks should respond to an incident. Provinces and territories make operational decisions, such as committing a provincial Emergency Medical Team.
The GOC coordinates at the national level - it is the operations centre for the entire country, uniting the efforts of all federal departments and agencies during national emergencies. And while the GOC is housed at PS, it is a resource available to any federal department or agency during a crisis.
Regional Offices are the primary points of contact between provincial/territorial authorities and federal departments for emergencies requiring an integrated Government of Canada response through the GOC. Regional Offices play a critical role in developing and maintaining awareness of threats to public safety and producing and sharing situational reports and risk assessments to the GOC.
Flexible capacity
The GOC's permanent staff includes watch officers, duty officers specializing in national communications as well as a geomatics team to map incidents. In an emergency, staff numbers and capacity are quickly increased. This allows the GOC to serve as the focal point for emergency government operations and support officials from other departments and agencies analyze and respond to emergencies as they evolve.