Emergency Management
Increases in severe weather, greater urbanization, ageing infrastructure
and emerging international threats have increased the degree to which
Canadians are affected by emergencies - natural or human-induced. Over
the last decade, millions of Canadians have been affected in one way or
another by a disaster. Protecting our quality of life through Emergency
Management means ensuring that Canadians are better prepared personally
as well as at community, provincial/ territorial and national levels.
Providing
Canadians with a civil emergency response capability, humanitarian assistance
and disaster relief is a key commitment for the Department of National
Defence and the Canadian Forces (DND/CF). The Department of National Defence
is involved across the entire spectrum of Emergency Management, which
includes policy, mitigation (prevention), preparedness, response and recovery.
Within
DND, the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness
(OCIPEP) has a national mandate that includes the co-ordination of Government
of Canada (GOC) emergency management activities and the provision of national
leadership in the implementation of a comprehensive approach to enhancing
Canada's emergency management framework. The Canadian Forces (CF) play
a crucial and active role in the response and recovery efforts of major
disaster situations both nationally and internationally. Response and
recovery operations are carried out through deployment of the Disaster
Assistance Response Team (DART) a unique organization designed to deploy
to crisis situations anywhere in the world.
The National Search and Rescue Secretariat (NSS), reporting directly
to the Minister of National Defence, is the focal point for developing,
co-ordinating and reviewing national search and rescue policies and plans
with the federal agencies involved in Search and Rescue (SAR) services.
The NSS is responsible for liasing with the provincial and territorial
agencies, and volunteer groups that provide SAR services in their respective
areas of jurisdiction.
Emergency management of a major incident usually involves the resources
of many organizations both public and private. Operational, communications
and technical services must all come together to deliver a seamless response
capability - all of which could be achieved more efficiently using Internet
technology solutions.
OCIPEP
operates a 24-hour, 7-day/week emergency operations centre to monitor
emergency situations both in Canada and abroad, and to co-ordinate GOC
emergency response and recovery activities. The operations centre collects,
verifies and distributes information amongst GOC departments and agencies,
provincial and territorial governments, emergency response organizations,
private sector, media and the general public. This information pertains
to real and imminent threats to the overall health, safety and security
of Canadians as a result of natural or human-induced hazards; and includes
steps to enhance emergency preparedness in Canada.
Internet
communication capabilities and government on-line solutions will significantly
increase the sharing and availability of operational and practical emergency
preparedness information. The DND/CF and OCIPEP are planning to implement
web-enabled technology that can provide a seamless interface among the
many jurisdictions, departments, agencies and organizations that might
be involved in an emergency response.
The DND/CF must continue to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Modern
emergency response operations are more complex, demanding and dangerous
than ever before and it remains in Canada's strategic best interest to
maintain combat-capable sea, land and air forces capable of contributing
to emergency response and recovery operations.
More information about the OCIPEP is available at:
http://www.ocipep-bpiepc.gc.ca.
For more information contact the National Defence On-Line Program
Manager
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