Evidence of meeting #9 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was laws.
A video is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
As constructed, the EM authorities in our government and in the Government of Ontario play primarily a role in responding to natural disasters. In our case, Public Safety's government operations centre is a coordinating unit and provides reporting. Some of the documents we will be providing to the committee will show you the role they played in making sure that everybody was informed.
Neither they nor Ontario's EMO played any active role in managing the blockades.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Nobody from an EMO perspective was involved in the discussion.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
They were aware. As an authority for emergency management myself, I was there, but this was a policing matter.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
I appreciate that. I understand the context.
I'm just trying to figure out, when you create an emergency order at a provincial level, and when you do it a broader level, it's not just law enforcement that would be feeding the information up. I'm assuming there may be other agencies within what would be the solicitor general's department generally involved in that process.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Yes, absolutely. In our case there were multiple agencies.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
On a follow-up to Mr. Green's question, in terms of the role of the Ottawa police and how they may have assessed or not assessed the situation, they would probably be the best witness to be able to put that forward to us, given that they would have all the information including the information on which they relied on a day-to-day basis.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Yes. I would agree.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
With respect to the emergency order within Ontario as an example, when you look at the capacity of the provincial order and in reflection, do you see that there's a disconnect between the emergency capacity for orders in a province versus the federal level?
From an FPT process, would you be thinking about this going forward in terms of how they link together or create gaps between the two?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Yes. I believe this experience has given us all grounds for reflection on the structure and the nature of our emergency acts.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
That's because some of what you said would be that the design is more for natural disasters and not for public order.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Structures inside government are more for that. The emergency acts are probably a little more generic in terms of how they could be applied as acts.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
It's clear that the province took the position that it was beyond their capacity as a province, despite the fact that there's a provincial police service and a multitude of municipal forces within the province.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
The emergencies order in Ontario—which was obviously invoked shortly before the federal order—primarily attempted to clear critical infrastructure. I have noted that we found in the law that we don't have enough power to protect critical infrastructure.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Right, but particularly to protect critical infrastructure, you would need a certain capacity within police agencies to be able to do that. Is that how you would see it, in terms of the capacity?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
In the event...but there is the issue of deterrence as well.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Thank you.
We will now move on to Monsieur Carignan.
The floor is yours for five minutes.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
My question will be about the blockade that took place on the Ambassador Bridge. The President of the United States called the Prime Minister of Canada a few days before the bridge was opened.
Did the request from the President of the United States reach your ears?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
No, but we spoke with people from the American government.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
They didn't ask for anything. They offered support for...
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
They offered tow trucks.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Yes, I think so, but I don't know the details of the process for ending the protest.