Emergency Management Strategy (EMS) for Canada

Background

In 2015, the Department set out to work with provinces and territories, Indigenous Peoples, and municipalities to develop a comprehensive action plan that allows Canada to better predict, prepare for, and respond to weather-related emergencies and natural disasters. Following broad consultations across the country, Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) governments began co-drafting the first ever Emergency Management Strategy for Canada (EMS).

The EMS establishes the following five priorities for FPT action on emergency management, aligned to the United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, in order to increase whole-of-society resilience in Canada by 2030:

  1. Enhance whole-of-society collaboration and governance to strengthen resilience;
  2. Improve understanding of disaster risks in all sectors of society;
  3. Increase focus on whole-of-society disaster prevention and mitigation activities;
  4. Enhance disaster response capacity and coordination and foster the development of new capabilities; and
  5. Strengthen recovery efforts by building back better to minimize the impacts of future disasters.

The EMS was approved by FPT Ministers Responsible for Emergency Management in January 2019, at which point FPT Ministers directed Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management (SOREM) to draft a FPT action plan for implementing the EMS, for presentation at the next FPT Ministers’ meeting (expected in spring 2020). A FPT working group has been established to advance this work.

Budget 2019 announced a proposed investment of $151.23 million (M) over five years, starting in 2019–20, and $9.28M per year ongoing, to improve emergency management in Canada, including in Indigenous communities.

Of this total, PS received $13.9M / 5 years and $1.4M ongoing to enhance our understanding of the nature of the risks facing Canada and to support critical infrastructure protection. This includes funding to improve Canada’s ability to predict and respond to threats, including enhancing our understanding of the nature of risks posed by various hazards. PS received
$7.53M / 5 years to support the development a National Risk Profile (NRP), a strategic-level risk assessment aimed at identifying, analyzing, and comparing risks. The Department also received two other Budget 2019 items related to emergency management: $5M / 5 years for an all-hazards public awareness campaign and $260M / 2 years to address anticipated costs under the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements.

PS has worked in parallel with other federal departments to support federal implementation of EMS-enabling initiatives, including Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) aligned with the Strategy’s five priority areas. The balance of EMS-related funding proposed in Budget 2019 was shared among the three federal departments as follows: $6 M / 5 years for ECCC; $48 M / 5 years for ISC; and $88 M / 5 years with $7.9 M ongoing for NRCan. These initiatives aim to improve Canada’s ability to predict and respond to threats through the use of early warning systems, and enhance our understanding of the nature of the risks posed by floods, wildfires and earthquakes.

Status

Following the Ministerial meeting in January 2019, SOREM reconstituted the EM Strategy Working Group and tasked them to undertake the development of an Action Plan. Subsequently, the Working Group proposed to adopt consistent terminology for identifying capabilities and gaps across the EM System in Canada. This approach was approved by SOREM in June 2019. 

FPT Working Group members have commenced engagement with internal (government) and external stakeholders, a process that will conclude in late Fall 2019.  This engagement includes validation of the proposed terminology, presented through a Canadian Core Capabilities List, as well as collecting an inventory of programs and policies that address the capabilities within each jurisdiction.  The Working Group will meet in-person in early November to review the feedback received to-date and finalize a draft Action Plan.

The information being collected will also help to strengthen EM policy and planning at the federal level. For example, the NRP can utilize the identified gaps found from the engagement process as a way to identify potential risks, and monitor progress on reducing them.

Next Steps

Work on the Action Plan will continue into winter 2019-20. FPT Ministers are expected to review progress on the Action Plan in spring 2020.

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