Good morning. I'm pleased to be here to speak on behalf of Public Safety Canada and my colleagues from Environment and Climate Change Canada, Infrastructure Canada, and the National Research Council of Canada on chapter 2, on federal support to mitigate the effects of severe weather, of the spring 2016 reports of the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development.
Mr. Chair, we welcome the Auditor General's report, which included a number of important recommendations on how the federal government can be better positioned to support Canada’s long-term mitigation efforts related to the effects of severe weather.
Canada has adopted an all-hazards approach to emergency management, based on the premise that many emergency management activities are common across all types of hazards and threats.
There are two elements that I want to emphasize relating to emergency management.
First is Canada’s evolving risk landscape.
To illustrate this, in the past 20 years there has been a pronounced shift in Canada’s risk profile, characterized by the increasing frequency and costs of disasters. Available data indicate that prior to 1995 there were only three disasters that exceeded $500 million in losses. However, from 1996 to 2009, there has been one disaster each year exceeding $500 million. This trend has increased since 2010, with at least a $1-billion disaster annually. Extreme weather and climate change in particular are seen as risk multipliers and are raising concerns regarding the ability of the current EM approach to managing events of differing scale and complexity.
Addressing the escalation of disaster frequency and costs is a collective challenge that will no doubt require strengthening current practices and strategies, as well as developing new approaches, to advance emergency management in Canada.
This particular audit focused on the federal government’s actions that support Canada’s long-term mitigation efforts. It examined key federal organizations’ data, tools, expertise, and funding that can help decision-makers mitigate the effects of severe weather.
Mr. Chair, Public Safety Canada, as the Government of Canada lead for this chapter, is in a strong position to respond to the recommendations outlined in the report. In fact, work is already under way to address them. Public Safety Canada and Natural Resources Canada are already working with provinces and territories and other key stakeholders to develop national flood-plain mapping guidelines.
The Government of Canada will also work to further align federal mitigation programming. This will include robust stakeholder outreach in all provinces and territories to review draft guidelines, strengthen relationships, enhance knowledge of federal mitigation programming, and bolster subscription. Furthermore, the Government of Canada will build on its relationships with other government departments, provinces, territories, and other stakeholders to understand changing requirements for climatological data, extreme precipitation statistics, and other tools.
We will also continue to work with partners who are engaged in the development of guidelines, codes, and standards for infrastructure, including Infrastructure Canada and the National Research Council of Canada, which have advised that they have already begun work to address report recommendations that the national building code take climate change trends into account. Forty million dollars was announced in budget 2016 to support this initiative.
Madam Chair, emergency management is a shared responsibility. The Government of Canada is committed to continue consulting and collaborating with government departments, provinces and territories, indigenous peoples, municipalities, and other stakeholders to mitigate the impacts of severe weather events.
Together, we can build community resilience to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters and other emergencies before they happen.
With that, I thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.