Response to Parliamentary Committees and External Audits

Title: Social Finance as it Relates to Crime Prevention in Canada
Government Response presented to the House: Friday, June 12, 2015
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=2&DocId=7832905

Summary: In May and June 2014, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (the Committee/SECU) undertook a study on social finance as it relates to crime prevention in Canada. The Ninth Report of SECU, “Social Finance as it Relates to Crime Prevention in Canada”, was tabled on February 16, 2015. The Report contains ten recommendations that call on the government to maintain steady investments in crime prevention and to utilize social finance mechanisms as a way to expand total funds put toward crime prevention in Canada. The Committee encouraged the government to introduce pilot crime prevention projects to test social finance mechanisms and consider integrating models of social finance into crime prevention programming through the National Crime Prevention Strategy. The Government Response was tabled in June 2015, and Public Safety Canada committed to develop a social finance strategy and implement proof-of-concept pilots to test the application of social finance mechanisms in the domain of crime prevention.

The SECU report and the Government Response can be found at:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/Committee/412/SECU/Reports/RP7832905/securp09/securp09-e.pdf

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=8046093&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=2

Title: Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development; Chapter 2:  Mitigating the Effects of Severe Weather
Name of Committee: Environment and Sustainable Development (ENVI)
Government Response presented to the Committee: Thursday, June 2, 2016
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&DocId=8324872

Title: Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development; Chapter 2:  Mitigating the Effects of Severe Weather

Summary: This audit examined the federal government’s actions to support decision-makers in mitigating the effects of severe weather events as well as Public Safety Canada’s role in coordinating federal efforts.  It also assessed whether the federal government is meeting its responsibilities of making Canada’s infrastructure more resilient through its mitigation funding programs.
Four departments and agencies including Public Safety Canada were involved in the audit: Environment and Climate Change Canada, Natural Resources Canada, the National Research Council and Infrastructure Canada. The official response to the OAG was submitted in March 2016.
The audit recommended that Public Safety Canada collaborate with stakeholders, provinces and territories to develop national guidelines for flood-plain mapping, and consult with decision-makers to determine information needs to support disaster risk reduction efforts. It also recommended that Public S work with federal partners to identify potential changes to mitigation programs to facilitate provincial and territorial investments in both structural and non-structural mitigation. Additionally, the audit recommended that Environment and Climate Change Canada work with partners to determine how intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves should be produced for decision-makers, and that the National Research Council of Canada should incorporate climate change into the National Building Code’s structural design provisions.

Hyperlink to the department’s response:

 http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_cesd_201605_02_e_41381.html

During the reporting period, Public Safety Canada provided one response to the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development in 2015-16, related to Environmental Petition #380. This petition addressed to Public Safety Canada and eight other departments enquired whether the atmosphere should be considered as a critical infrastructure sector in Canada. Public Safety Canada’s response to CESD and the petitioner highlighted that:

• the matters related to the atmosphere are not explicitly within the Public Safety Canada’s mandate;
• the atmosphere is not part of the Strategy, but is essential to the continuity of all ten sectors;
• the ten critical infrastructure sectors were identified based on extensive consultation with the private sector, non-government organizations, as well as provinces and territories. As well, these ten sectors were formally recognized as part of the Strategy, which was approved in 2010 by all Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers responsible for emergency management; and
• the Strategy defines critical infrastructure as processes, systems, facilities, technologies, networks, assets and services essential to the health, safety, security or economic well-being of Canadians and the effective functioning of government.

During the reporting period, Public Safety Canada was not audited by the Public Service Commission or the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.