Emergency Management and Programs Branch Overview

Canada's Emergency Management (EM) system is rooted in shared responsibilities across federal, provincial, territorial (FPT) and municipal governments, Indigenous communities, and private stakeholders. Pursuant to the Emergency Management Act (EMA), Public Safety Canada (PS) has the legislative mandate to build a safe and resilient Canada by providing national leadership in emergency management. To deliver this mandate, the Emergency Management and Programs Branch (EMPB) has three core responsibilities:

1. Operational and strategic coordination, situational awareness, planning, and exercises through the Government Operations Centre (GOC);
2. The development of policies, programs, regulations and legislation through the Policy and Outreach Directorate (POD); and
3. The administration and delivery of grant and contribution funding for EM and community safety programming through the Program Directorate (PD).

EMPB works with other federal departments and agencies, provinces and territories, national and regional Indigenous organizations, as well as other stakeholders, to advance a coordinated approach across the four pillars of EM: prevention and mitigation of disasters and their impacts; preparedness (e.g., training, exercises and planning); response to incidents; and recovery (to rebuild infrastructure and communities in order to reduce vulnerability to future hazards).

The Branch has approximately 500 employees including two Assistant Deputy Ministers: one responsible for POD and the GOC, and the other responsible for Programs. With regional offices in 12 locations (organized into five regions: Atlantic, Quebec and Nunavut, Ontario, Prairies and Northwest Territories, and British Columbia and Yukon), these offices serve as the primary regional contact points and play an important role supporting communities through program delivery and coordinating EM planning and response across 14 departments.

With climate change and other factors, new risks are emerging that require Canada to develop the capacity to address both anticipated and unanticipated hazards. Accordingly, the leadership role that PS plays in Canada's EM system is increasingly important to ensure a whole-of-society approach to preparedness, response and resilience.

Resilience and Prevention/Mitigation

The POD is responsible for enhancing disaster resiliency across Canada. This includes leading the policy and program development function for EM responsibilities under the EMA: prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery through developing, coordinating and enacting interdisciplinary policies and programs to reduce disaster risk for Canadians.

The 2019 EM Strategy for Canada: Toward a Resilient 2030 (the Strategy) is a roadmap to strengthen Canada's ability to assess risk, prevent and mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. It identifies FPT priorities that will strengthen Canada's resilience by 2030, in line with Canada's international obligations under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030), a key component of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda. FPT work to begin renewal of the Strategy is planned for the coming year. [REDACTED]

Other initiatives underway:

• Exploring approaches to strengthening Canada's EM governance to address needs and gaps.
• Leading policy and program development for interoperable emergency communications (i.e., National Public Alerting System and building a Public Safety Broadband Network).
• Implementing a modernized Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement (DFAA), which came into effect on April 1, 2025. The DFAA provides significant financial assistance to PTs in the event of large-scale natural disasters when response and recovery costs exceed thresholds specific to each province and territory.
• [REDACTED]
• Exploring options for a low-cost national flood insurance and relocation program.
• Developing a Canada-wide Flood Risk Awareness Portal to provide Canadians with flood risk mapping, modelling outputs, and resources on how best to protect their homes and communities.
• [REDACTED]
• National coordination, convening and funding for Canada's search and rescue system, and the development of Canada's National Heavy Urban Search and Rescue program in alignment with the UN's International Urban Search and Rescue Working Group.
• Leading Canada's participation in the international COSPAS-SARSAT Programme, a Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking System to detect and locate marine vessels, aircraft and persons in distress. [REDACTED]
• Working with stakeholders, including other federal departments, public safety personnel organizations, academics and PTs, to renew the National Action Plan on Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries in public safety personnel.
• Supporting the implementation of the National Adaptation Strategy, focusing on advancing disaster resilience aimed at establishing a shared vision for climate resilience in Canada.
• Engagement with FPT partners through EM governance forums; co-chairing the annual meetings of FPT Deputy Ministers, FPT Ministers Responsible for Emergency Management, and the meeting of FPT Ministers and National Indigenous Organization Leaders.

Coordination of Emergency Incidents

The EMA gives the Minister of PS responsibility for exercising leadership relating to EM in Canada by coordinating EM activities across all orders of government.

Public Safety provides leadership, via the GOC, for integrated federal emergency response to all-hazards events (potential or actual, natural or human-induced, accidental or intentional) of national interest. It offers coordination in alignment with the Federal Emergency Response Plan (FERP). The FERP is implemented when the scope, scale or importance of an emergency event requires an integrated federal government response.

While situated within EMPB, the GOC operates on behalf of the Government of Canada, and is an asset for the entire federal government. This includes support to the Minister in coordinating the federal response to PT requests for assistance to address local or regional emergencies, and Requests for Federal Assistance (RFA) to law enforcement agencies (ALEA). The GOC provides 24/7 monitoring and reporting, warning products and integrated risk assessments, as well as national-level planning, exercising and response management.

The GOC supports preparedness for events in the following areas:

• EM planning
• Development of cyclical and event specific risk assessments
• Coordinating and communicating with PTs on cyclical risk assessments for all hazards
• EM exercising
• Hazard monitoring and warning
• Policy development related to EM and its operationalization, including the feasibility of a national EM agency to advance federal EM efforts
• Engagement with FPT partners through EM governance forums and providing leadership to other federal operations centers
• Leading lessons learned activities including "hotwashes" and after-action reports.

The GOC supports response to events in the following areas:

• Activation of Crisis Cell governance tables and providing situational awareness and assessments to relevant decision makers
• Response coordination of federal departments and the Canadian Forces under the FERP
• Managing logistics in accordance with the FERP
• Processing RFAs and deployment of member organizations under the Humanitarian Workforce Program
• Event hazard risk assessments and critical infrastructure impact analysis
• Geospatial support
• Operational communications between emergency operations centers
• Issue nation-wide alerts under specific circumstances

The GOC provides support and situational awareness for an integrated whole-of-government response when:

• A PT requests federal support to deal with an event that affects national interest;
• An event affects multiple jurisdictions and/or government institutions and requires a coordinated response as it falls outside of routine operations;
• An event directly involves federal assets, services, employees, statutory authority or responsibilities; or
• An event affects confidence in the government or other aspects of the national interest.

Each year, in consultation with FPT and science based departments, the GOC completes advance risk assessments for the fire and flood seasons, with the intent to increase federal preparedness. It also coordinates the development of interdepartmental and multijurisdictional EM exercises, with all levels of government, first responders, NGOs, to enable enhanced response coordination and reinforces preparedness.

Decision Making in Emergency Situations

The vast majority of emergencies are adequately managed by local authorities and PT governments. The Government of Canada manages events within federal jurisdiction and provides supports and financial assistance to PTs in response to an RFA. Even when federal resources are requested through an RFA, incident command and control generally remains at the requesting jurisdiction's incident command centre (often referred to as an emergency operations centre). The federal government's role in the vast majority of cases is to provide support – weather modeling, specialized knowledge, or information related to federally regulated industries such as railways. The GOC can also assist with ensuring that all available assets are brought to bear on the situation.

PS works closely with Indigenous Services Canada who has a legislated responsibility for ensuring that First Nations communities receive EM services.

Providing Programmatic Support

The Programs Directorate, with the support of its regional offices, is responsible for administering 26 grants and contributions programs related to emergency management and community safety. Through program delivery, the Branch provides funding to non-governmental organizations, provinces, territories and municipalities in support of search and rescue, emergency management, crime prevention, preventing gun and gang violence, and countering radicalization to violence. Staff in EMPB also work across PS and federal partners to provide strategic input and evidence-based data to support relevant policy initiatives and program development. A key initiative is the modernization and improvement of program delivery and administration.

Date modified:

2025-09-08