Parliamentary Committee Notes: National Public Alerting System (NPAS)
Proposed Response
- Part of building safe and resilient communities is the implementation of measures to warn Canadians about threats to public safety.
- Canada’s National Public Alerting System provides emergency management organizations across the country with the capability to rapidly warn the public of imminent or unfolding hazards.
- Public alerting is a shared responsibility among all orders of government. Our government is committed to collaborating with all public alerting partners to promote the continuous improvement of the system.
- Public Safety Canada will continue to work with other governments and industry partners to promote continuous improvement of the system.
Background
The National Public Alerting System (NPAS)
The National Public Alerting System (NPAS), branded as Alert Ready, provides emergency management organizations across the country with a standard alerting capability to warn the public of imminent or unfolding hazards through wireless (cell) phones and traditional radio, cable television, and satellite television in both of Canada’s official languages. The NPAS complements existing public alerting systems and tools in a number of FPT jurisdictions (e.g. mobile apps).
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) sets the regulatory framework for the NPAS that requires television / radio broadcasters and wireless service providers through the Broadcasting and Telecommunications regulations to carry public alerts issued through the the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) System.
The technical infrastructure for the NPAS is owned and operated by Pelmorex Corp, owner of The Weather Network / MétéoMedia television channels.
Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management (SOREM) is the steward of the Common Look and Feel (CLF) Guidelines and Common Alerting Protocol – Canadian Profile standards which seek to ensure consistency in the presentation and dissemination of emergency alerts.
Each jurisdiction is responsible for issuing alerts through the NPAS. All 13 provinces and territories are connected to the NPAS. Through their emergency management organizations or delegates (e.g., municipalities, local authorities), alerting authorities determine if and when the public needs to be warned of an imminent threat-to-life, and send these critical warnings to the public in the affected geographic regions. Federally, Environment and Climate Change Canada uses the NPAS to issue severe threat-to-life weather alerts, such as for tornados and Public Safety Canada’s Government Operations Centre also has the ability to use the system to send alerts. Natural Resources Canada is expected to connect to the NPAS as part of its Earthquake Early Warning system in early 2024.
The Mass Casualty Commission
On March 30, 2023, the final report of the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission was released, it included recommendations related to public alerting, including a recommendation that “FPT governments to undertake a fundamental review of public emergency alerting to determine whether and how the Alert Ready system can be reformed”, it also included recommendations around training and public education about public warnings.
Public Safety Canada continues to advance collaborative work to strengthen the overall use, sustainability, and governance of the National Public Alerting System with federal, provincial and territorial partners. On June 28, 2023, Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers responsible for emergency management met to review the progress and to explore alternative funding models in collaboration with provinces and territories. FPT Ministers instructed their respective teams to continue this collaborative work, and to consider the recommendations of the Mass Casualty Commission report related to public alerting, including its call for an alerting framework.
The public alerting system is a priority. The Government of Canada remains committed to continued collaboration with all public alerting partners to improve the effectiveness of emergency alerting in Canada.
Missile Warning Protocol
In 2018, Public Safety's Government Operations Centre worked with the Canadian Armed Forces, along with the collaboration and contribution of federal departments and agencies, to develop Canada's Missile Warning Protocol. It formalizes sharing information about events to key federal partners, allowing them to rapidly implement appropriate response measures as required. The Missile Warning Protocol formalizes how information is shared about events to key federal partners, allowing them to rapidly implement appropriate response measures as required.
The Missile Warning Protocol includes the process that the Federal Government would take to notify Canadians about the launch of an intercontinental missile that is considered an actual or potential threat to Canada and Canadian interests. As with any contingency protocol, Public Safety Canada, in partnership with provinces and territories, and all stakeholders, continues to advance various aspects of the protocol to support an efficient response, should it be activated.
In the event of a national emergency, the federal government via Public Safety’s Government Operations Centre has developed the ability to notify affected Canadians using the NPAS should there be a missile event. We are working with PTs to finalize and test this capability.
The protocol is constantly evolving based upon lessons learned from other events, ongoing input from partners and our evolving risk environment.
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