Raison d’Être, Mandate and Role, and Operating Context

2025 to 2026 Raison d’être

The Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (i.e., Public Safety Canada; PS) plays a key role in discharging the Government's fundamental responsibility for the safety and security of its citizens. The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness is responsible for the Department.

Legislation governing the Department sets out three essential roles:

The Department provides strategic policy advice and support to the Minister, and delivers a number of grant and contribution programs, in line with its three core responsibilities: National Security, Community Safety and Emergency Management.

Mandate and role

The Department’s mandate is to keep Canada safe from a range of risks such as natural disasters, crime and terrorism. As such, Public Safety Canada collaborates with federal partners as well as all orders of government, Indigenous communities, non-government organizations, community groups, the private sector, foreign states, academia, and first responders on issues related to national and border security, crime prevention, community safety and emergency management. This cooperation supports a cohesive and integrated approach to Canada’s safety and security.

The Department also work towards fulfilling the commitments outlined in the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness’ mandate letter.

Public Safety Portfolio

Public Safety Canada works with the following five agencies and three review bodies, unified in a single portfolio, reporting to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

Partner Agencies

Review Bodies

Operating context

Public Safety Canada (PS) plays a key role in discharging the Government’s fundamental responsibility for the safety and security of its citizens, and exercises this responsibility through policy development, program administration, and interdepartmental coordination. PS oversees a complex array of partnerships and systems needed to develop and maintain policies, legislation, and programs required to uphold this responsibility, and provides strategic priority direction and leadership to the five Partner Agencies.

The Department’s work takes place in an ever-changing safety and security environment that requires responsiveness to: international political and social instability and conflict; the spread of misinformation and the declining trust in democratic institutions; violence and hate motivated crimes; threats to critical infrastructure and economic security; and, the growing frequency and severity of climate-related disasters. In this challenging context, PS demonstrates national, Portfolio, and international leadership in fulfilling its core responsibilities in National Security, Community Safety, and Emergency Management. Demand for the Department and Portfolio Agencies’ services continues to rapidly evolve and increase, highlighting the ongoing importance of the public safety mandate, and of our efforts to leverage new and existing resources to respond to these and other simultaneous emergency and security events at the pace and magnitude that is required and expected by Canadians.

From a National Security perspective, foreign interference remains a significant concern for Canadians. This includes risks to Parliamentarians, democratic institutions and elections as well as Canada’s critical infrastructure (CI), as foreign threat actors increasingly leverage cyber systems to conduct espionage and disrupt operations. Canada’s national critical infrastructure and cyber security approaches and responses must keep pace with these complex challenges. Ongoing action is also needed to address threats posed by espionage and theft of leading-edge research, trade secrets, and intellectual property which have national security and economic significance.

PS is taking action by initiating new policies, strengthening safeguards and advancing collaboration at the national and international levels to counter foreign interference. We continue to lead the national security, CI and cyber communities to develop strategies that protect our CI and address counter-terrorism and violent extremism. Support is provided to Canada’s research community to strengthen the security posture at Canadian universities and research institutions, and ongoing engagement is taking place with federal, provincial, and territorial government and international partners to protect economic and innovative assets and ensure the security of public institutions and public figures.

From a Community Safety perspective, PS plays an essential role in federal policy leadership, coordination and program support related to crime prevention, law enforcement, and the rehabilitation of offenders. The Department provides consistent funding support through its robust grants and contributions programs to partner agencies and to community organizations working in these domains to support their efforts to ensure Canadian community safety is modern, effective, and reflective of the Canadian population that it serves.

Rising geopolitical tensions also impacts social cohesion in Canada, and influences levels of trust and confidence in public institutions. This is evidenced by increasing rates of hate-motivated crime in communities, and decreasing rates of institutional trust particularly in vulnerable communities. Community safety and cohesion cannot be assured by working in silos. Effective policy, program, and funding administration requires consistent, effective, and enduring relationships and collaboration between federal, provincial, territorial, municipal, and Indigenous partners. These partnerships facilitate the design and delivery of national programs that are specific and appropriate to regions and communities, meeting the needs of vulnerable and Indigenous communities. Given the shared federal, provincial, territorial and local jurisdictional responsibilities on some public safety issues, it is critical that the Department continues to nurture partnerships with various orders of government so it can effectively develop and manage evolving legislation, frameworks and programs that meet changing public expectations related to accountability, sustainability and the delivery of policing services, and to prevent and address crimes that are more and more sophisticated (such as human trafficking, organized crime, etc.).

In the same vein, domestic community safety relies on safe and effective border management, to mitigate threats from within and without. Management of the world’s longest international border, exclusively a federal responsibility, is dependent on mutual and effective relationships between Canada and the United States (U.S.). PS continues to liaise and collaborate closely with its U.S. counterparts to lead ongoing dialogue on strategic and operational border policy issues to enhance economic competitiveness and accelerate the legitimate flow of persons, goods and services (e.g., through the Preclearance program). A critical component of these strategic discussions includes tackling shared and unique immigration-related issues and addressing cross-border crime, including smuggling, trafficking and migratory challenges, via law enforcement cooperation and robust information sharing.

Finally, work in Emergency Management (EM) is increasingly driven by environmental risks. Climate change is intensifying heatwaves, wildfires, floods and other natural disasters across all continents, with events often occurring simultaneously. Recent unprecedented wildfire seasons in Canada demonstrated the importance of having capacity to effectively respond to emergencies: responses which are led by provincial and territorial-level governments, with federal government support and coordination. Recognizing that these risks are expected to continue and worsen, and that they require whole-of-nation solutions, PS continues to develop, refine, and deploy EM response frameworks, resources and strategies that support its responsibilities at the local/municipal and provincial levels. As events intensify in scale and impact, provinces and territories will continue to rely on federal coordination and intervention, including funding support for disaster recovery.

In the current EM context, encouraging sustainable and resilient prevention and mitigation, to avoid or mitigate negative impacts before they happen, is critical to minimizing risks to Canadians. The Department must continue to foster and nurture close Federal-Provincial-Territorial relationships to evolve EM strategies and frameworks to meet new challenges, while it continues to support local/municipal and provincial/territorial governments in managing emergencies.

Across its mandate, Public Safety Canada is committed to being proactive in leveraging partnerships, technology, tools and resources at its disposal to modernize and adapt as it fulfils its leadership role in ensuring a safe and resilient Canada.

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