Parliamentary Committee Notes: Community Resilience and Emergency Management

Commitments:

• Make our communities safe and increase forest resilience to wildfire (Min of EP lead)
• Mitigate and respond to emerging incidents and hazards (Min of EP lead)
• Develop a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Data Strategy to inform the development of the Climate Data Strategy (CDS).
• Continue advancing the National Action Plan on Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries

Overarching message on progress and priorities

• The rising frequency and severity of natural disasters is a growing concern for Canadians and a threat to our collective safety.
• The Government of Canada is committed to taking a proactive, whole-of-society approach to mitigate and respond to climate-change driven hazards such as floods and wildfires.
• Canada continues to make significant investments to keep communities safe and increase resilience to wildfires, and is supporting provinces and territories to strengthen wildfire preparation and response. In anticipation of the upcoming wildfire season, key partners across Government are collaborating to once again ensure a robust preparedness strategy, informed by subject matter experts and lessons learned from last year’s unprecedented wildfire season.
• From updating the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) program, to investing in the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF), or having accessible flood insurance, there is a wide range of ongoing initiatives which are strengthening Canada’s response to climate-change driven hazards.
• Public Safety (PS) is leading the development of a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Data Strategy to ensure coherence and interoperability of federal DRR data. PS is working with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and other departments on this initiative to ensure alignment with the Climate Data Strategy (CDS). The intention is for the DRR Data Strategy to inform the physical risk component of the CDS, which, in addition to physical risks, also focuses on net-zero transition risks.
• The Government of Canada is committed to providing national leadership to support the mental health of public safety personnel. As part of the Government’s National Action Plan on Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries, we are making investments to improve research, access to treatment, and help reduce the stigma that still exists in the first responder public safety personnel community.

Make our communities safe and increase forest resilience to wildfire (Min of EP lead)

• Climate-change driven hazards such as floods and wildfires represent a mounting threat to the safety of Canadians and the economic viability of Canadian businesses and communities.
• The Government of Canada is committed to working with provinces, territories and whole-of-society partners to prevent, respond to, and recover from wildfire events.
• The Government Operations Centre (GOC), on behalf of the Government of Canada, is the lead for federal response coordination for emergency events affecting the national interest and works in close collaboration with federal organizations, non-governmental organizations and provincial emergency management partners.
• In addition to continued monitoring of wildfire activity Canada-wide, the GOC maintains daily situational awareness of wildfire situations across the country.
• We are deeply grateful to the first responders, fire fighters and all those who work tirelessly to protect the health and safety of Canadians. Our provinces and territories that were embroiled in wildfires in 2023 have been doing an exemplary job with their provincial and territorial firefighting resources.
• The Government of Canada has made a number of investments that support in building resilience to wildfires, including:
  • Investing over $3.8 billion through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund to help protect Canadians from natural hazards.
  • Budget 2022, which included over $500 million to support provinces, territories, and Indigenous communities to purchase firefighting equipment, train wildland firefighters, incorporate Indigenous traditional knowledge in fire management, and deliver a new wildfire monitoring satellite system.
  • Investing $285 million through the National Adaptation Strategy, announced in 2023 to support climate resilience, to launch the Wildfire Resilient Futures Initiative. This includes new investments to expand FireSmart Canada and establish a Centre of Excellence for Wildland Fire Innovation and Resilience.
• Further, the Government of Canada released the National Risk Profile’s first public report in 2023 to improve Canadians’ understanding of wildland fire risk.

Mitigate and respond to emerging incidents and hazards (Min of EP lead)

• Climate-change driven hazards such as floods and wildfires represent a mounting threat to the safety of Canadians and the economic viability of Canadian businesses and communities.
• The Government of Canada is investing over $3.8 billion through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund to help protect Canadians from natural hazards.
• Through Budget 2022, the Government of Canada committed to investing over $500 million to provide support to provinces, territories, and Indigenous communities in wildfire management.
• The Government is taking steps to ensure that Canadians are better protected and better able to recover from flood events, including through key Budget 2023 investments of $95.1 million to develop a flood risk communication portal; improve flood insurance coverage; identify high-risk flood areas; and, implement a modernized Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program.
• Further, in 2023, the Government of Canada released the National Risk Profile’s first public report to improve Canadians’ understanding of disaster risk, plus the country’s first-ever National Adaptation Strategy, which outlines a shared vision for a resilient Canada.

Develop a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Data Strategy to inform the development of the Climate Data Strategy (CDS)

• PS is leading the development of a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Data Strategy to ensure coherence and interoperability of DRR data, information, and initiatives across the government.
• PS has established an interdepartmental working group to advise on the DRR Data Strategy, developed a draft report that maps the federal ecosystem of DRR data and identifies gaps related to the achievement of the mandate letter commitment, and created an overarching framework for the Strategy.
• PS is leading an interdepartmental effort via the Coordinate Exposure Data Network (CEDN) to improve the quality and availability of exposure data. This effort will improve the federal government’s ability to conduct risk assessments for a range of hazards, including those that are climate-related.
• PS is working closely with ECCC to inform the development of the Climate Data Strategy (CDS). ECCC has formed an interdepartmental working group, which PS co-chairs, to advise on the development of the Strategy.

Continue advancing the National Action Plan on Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries

• Every day, public safety personnel put their safety at risk to protect and help Canadians. As a result, they are often exposed to dangerous and traumatic situations that may lead to post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI).
• The Government is proud to help those who never fail to help us by continuing to advance Canada’s first-ever National Action Plan on Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries for public safety personnel, launched on April 8, 2019.
• The Action Plan focuses on three key pillars: research and data collection; prevention, early intervention and stigma reduction; and support for care and treatment.
• Under the Action Plan the Government has invested $20 million for a National Research Consortium on PTSI among public safety personnel. This network of academics, researchers, and clinicians has now grown to 140 members with coordinated efforts in place to develop and share knowledge products tailored to the needs of the public safety personnel community.
• The Government has also invested $10 million to support the delivery of PSPNET, which continues to provide public safety personnel and their families access to quality online mental health services and resources.
• Through Budget 2023, the Government is providing an additional $16.7 million over five years (2023-2028) to enable the Canadian Institute of Public Safety Research and Training (CIPSRT) to continue this crucial work.
• The Contribution Agreement Amendment with CIPSRT has just been signed (March 2024).
• Planning is underway to undertake consultations in 2024 towards a renewed Action Plan since its first launch in 2019.
• In the tragic circumstances where lives are lost, there is a memorial grant program providing first responder families with a one time, tax free payment $300,000 to help with the transition in the loss of their loved one.

Background:

1. Make our communities safe and increase forest resilience to wildfire

Like other climate-change driven hazards, wildfires are increasing in both frequency and costs, and are a mounting threat to the safety and economic viability of Canadian businesses and communities. The 2023 wildfire season was extraordinary from the number of hectares burned, the number of provinces and territories impacted, in addition to the level of international assistance provided to Canada. The federal government responded to 18 Requests for Federal Assistance from the provinces and territories.

Provinces/territories and local authorities are primarily responsible for wildfire preparedness and response in their jurisdictions and own the majority of fire fighting capacity in Canada. To support this, the Federal Government is committed to making significant pro-active investments to combat wildfire events.

In addition to the multitude of existing federal investments in wildland fire prevention and response, many new investments are being launched, including the Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate Program, which is providing $256 million over five years (starting in 2022-2023) to support provinces and territories to strengthen fire management capacities and capabilities by facilitating the purchase of wildland firefighting equipment to increase the capacity to respond and prepare for wildland fires. Though this agreement, on September 7, 2023, it was announced that more than $65 million in federal funding has been committed for six agreements to six provinces and territories (AB, BC, NS, SK, NT, and the YK).

In addition, the Training Fund portion of the program committed $28 million over 5 years, which has garnered an important result through the now concluded two-year Training Pilot that focused on providing support to Indigenous communities and organizations to train firefighters and to better understand needs and barriers. In December 2023, a new call for applications for the Training program opened. While the priority will continue to support Indigenous needs, other project proposals are eligible in the areas of wildland firefighter training, community wildfire protection training, and youth wildfire training.

Wildfire agencies collaborate through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), a not-for-profit corporation owned and operated by federal, provincial and territorial wildland fire management agencies, to exchange fire fighting personnel, aircraft, equipment and information. CIFFC is responsible for coordinating international assistance related to wildfires and is currently undergoing a substantial shift as its mandate expands to include wildfire prevention and mitigation activities. Through recent mandate commitments, the Government of Canada has also committed to take steps to establish an international centre of excellence in Canada focused on firefighter training, coordination and wildfire management.

These collaborative efforts are guided by the Emergency Management Framework for Canada, which establishes a common approach for a range of collaborative emergency management initiatives in support of safe and resilient communities. The Framework was revised and approved by Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers in 2017. Building on the Framework, the Emergency Management Strategy for Canada: Toward a Resilient 2030 identifies federal, provincial and territorial priorities that will strengthen Canada’s resilience by 2030. Approved and released at the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers’ Meeting in 2019, the Strategy is a collaborative, whole-of-society roadmap to strengthening Canada’s ability to assess risks, prevent/mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from, disasters.

2. Mitigate and respond to emerging incidents and hazards

Climate-change driven hazards are increasing in both frequency and costs, and are a mounting threat to the safety and economic viability of Canadian businesses and communities. In order to help control escalating disaster costs, Canada is in the process of shifting its approach to managing disaster risks. This involves moving from a reactive government-focused model to a proactive whole-of-society framework with a focus on disaster risk reduction, prevention and mitigation.

Mitigation refers to proactive steps taken to eliminate, or reduce, the risks of disasters in order to protect lives, property, the environment, and reduce economic disruption; these activities are the most effective means of reducing disaster impacts and costs. International studies report benefit-cost ratios for mitigation ranging from $3:1 (Australia) to $10:1 (World Bank). Mitigation includes structural measures (e.g. construction of floodways and dykes) and non-structural measures (e.g. building codes, land-use planning, and insurance incentives).

The Government Operations Centre (GOC) is mandated, on behalf of the Government of Canada, to lead and support response coordination of events of national interest. It is an interdepartmental response-focused asset of the Government of Canada, working in support of deputy heads, departments and agencies at the national (strategic) whole-of-government level.

Each year, in consultation with partners, the GOC completes a comprehensive risk assessment and planning process in advance of flooding and the wildland urban interface seasons. The final outcomes include contingency plans to outline a coordinated structure for an integrated federal response to flooding or wildfire events, in support of the provinces and territories, for regions of concern.

In the past few years, the Minister of Public Safety, on behalf of the federal government, has accepted increasing numbers of Requests for Assistance (RFAs) for relief efforts from events including the recent impacts from Hurricane Fiona, Atmospheric River events, and the 2023 wildfires. More than 220 RFAs have been coordinated by the GOC since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

3. Develop a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Data Strategy to inform the development of the Climate Data Strategy (CDS)

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is leading the development of a Climate Data Strategy (CDS) to help ensure that all partners, including the private sector and communities, have access to data to inform planning and investments.

The CDS will consider physical risks, such as increasing extreme weather events and long-term gradual climate shifts, as well as transitional risks, which are related to the financial risk of adjusting to a low-carbon economy.

Complementary to the work on the CDS, PS is leading the development of a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Data Strategy to ensure a common understanding and interoperability for all DRR data and set the foundation for consistent discovery of and access to data to support a range of risk assessments – using a modular approach.

The overall objective of the DRR Data Strategy is to achieve full national coverage for probabilistic risk and capability analyses, with the end result being an improved capacity to price insurance products, disclose financial risks, and appropriately target federal infrastructure investments.

The DRR Data Strategy will contribute to the CDS for the physical risks that are affected by climate change. While there is an urgent need to understand disaster risk within the context of climate change, it is also important to recognize that some hazards, such as geophysical events, are not greatly affected by climate change. Therefore the DRR Data Strategy will focus on all natural hazards, regardless of their relationship with climate change.

4. Continue advancing the National Action Plan on Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries

On April 8, 2019, the Government of Canada announced the release of Supporting Canada’s Public Safety Personnel: An Action Plan on Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries. The Action Plan focuses on three key pillars: research and data collection; prevention, early intervention and stigma reduction; and support for care and treatment. Work to advance the Action Plan has been supported by investments, including:

• $5 million over five years to support the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT) as the Knowledge Exchange Hub of the National Research Consortium on Post Traumatic Stress Injuries (PTSI) among public safety personnel;
• $15 million to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to support the development of leading-edge research in the area of PTSI in public safety personnel;
• $10 million to CIPSRT for an Internet-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (ICBT) pilot, called PSPNET, to provide greater access to care and treatment for public safety personnel, especially in rural and remote areas;
• $1 million to Runnymede Healthcare Centre (RHC) for a feasibility study into the development of a facility dedicated to comprehensive rehabilitation-focused programs and services for PTSI.

CIPSRT’s mission is to support the mental health of Canada’s public safety personnel, their leaders and their families through research, treatment, training and a Knowledge Exchange Hub. Funding to CIPSRT supports the majority of initiatives under the Action Plan. Prior to Budget 2018, CIPSRT consisted of a small group of academics receiving project-based funding to examine mental health challenges among public safety personnel. Since 2018, CIPSRT has established itself as the leading multidisciplinary national authority on PTSI in public safety personnel, and has been successful in receiving funding from other government departments to undertake various initiatives.

PSPNET is a 10 week online course dedicated to providing mental health supports to public safety personnel who are exhibiting symptoms of PTSI. It consists of self-guided training modules accompanied by weekly therapist support by secure email or telephone, and is currently available in Saskatchewan, Quebec, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

As the Knowledge Exchange Hub, CIPSRT serves as the key catalyst to take research funded by CIHR and ensure this research is translated to lay summaries and is broadly shared among the academic community, public safety leadership and frontline staff. The Hub supports engagement between researchers and public safety stakeholders to bring frontline personnel into the research process. This is key to ensuring that the research itself is informed by and relevant to public safety personnel.

Budget 2023 earmarked $16.7 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, to Public Safety Canada to allow CIPSRT to continue its work as the Knowledge Exchange Hub, as well as to support engagements with provinces and territories that do not have the PSPNET pilot in their jurisdiction. Funding will also enable CIPSRT to develop and implement a complementary course for public safety personnel families, who also suffer from mental health challenges.

TB has granted authority to adjust PS departmental reference levels as set out in the Cost, Funding Requirements and Source of Funds Table by Estimates Vote Structure in order to add $16,700,000 to departmental reference levels (i.e. $500,000 in FY 2023/24; $1,200,000 in FY 2024/25; $5,000,000 in FY 2025/26; $5,000,000 in FY 2026/27 and $5,000,000 in FY 2027/28).

Over a five year period (2023-2028) it is anticipated that the Contribution Agreement will provide approximately $6,700,000 to CIPSRT to function as the Knowledge Exchange Hub and approximately $10,000,000 to undertake an expansion of the PSPNET pilot.

The Contribution Agreement Amendment with CIPSRT to reflect these additional Budget 2023 funds has just been signed (March, 2024).

In 2024, PS will undertake consultations with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and other government departments, public safety personnel leadership, unions, academics and other stakeholders to explore alignment with broader work on mental health, including among frontline workers, and the role other organizations could play in the renewal of the Action Plan. These consultations will identify current and emerging needs and gaps to inform an updated Action Plan.

Date modified:

2024-08-07