Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the Standing Committee on Health, for giving me the opportunity to speak. I'm pleased to brief you on the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness's role in the Canadian response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
My name is Patrick Tanguy. I'm the senior assistant deputy minister of the emergency management and programs branch at Public Safety Canada.
As we're all aware, much has changed since I last appeared before this committee on February 3, 2020. The international and domestic impacts of COVID-19 have affected all aspects of our lives and all sectors of society in communities large and small across our country. These impacts have been especially felt by the public safety sector, including the workers and volunteers involved in emergency response and the people who work to maintain the safety of our communities as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds.
Before I begin, I'd like to recognize the hard work of first responders and public safety officers and volunteers in supporting Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while their own personal and professional lives have been impacted. This includes the organizations represented at today's meeting, but also many others too numerous to list.
I'd like to begin by reminding the committee of Public Safety Canada's role in emergency management. As set out in the Emergency Management Act, the department plays a key role in coordinating emergency management activities among federal government institutions and other entities, such as provinces and territories.
The government operations centre, which is a whole-of-government asset housed in my department, is the main platform that we use for carrying out these activities. As outlined under the federal emergency response plan, the government operations centre supports response capacity and coordination during events of national interest, such the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government operations centre brings all partners in an event response together into a common environment to harmonize collective actions and abilities into efficient analysis and action. The government operations centre also interacts on a daily basis with the provincial and territorial emergency operations centres and coordinates official requests for assistance that could come from federal departments and agencies and from provinces and territories.
In addition to the role of the government operations centre, Public Safety Canada's communications directorate provides leadership in whole-of-government communications on the event by coordinating with other federal departments to develop effective key messaging for the Government of Canada to ensure calm and instill confidence in Canadians.
I'd like to re-emphasize that my department exercises its leadership in emergency management in close co-operation with its provincial and territorial counterparts. This is accomplished through various federal-provincial-territorial tables, at the ministerial, deputy ministerial and assistant deputy ministerial levels. This includes the federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for emergency management and senior officials responsible for emergency management.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, these tables have been meeting multiple times a week to remain apprised of current priorities, potential gaps and any requests for assistance that we may receive. Over the past few weeks, my department has engaged these tables on issues such as emergency management capacity in remote and isolated northern communities, essential services, and other health matters.
Under the Emergency Management Act, my department is also responsible for leading the national effort to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure. We do this in close collaboration with lead federal departments responsible for each of Canada's ten critical infrastructure sectors and with the private sector.
The national cross sector forum is the primary mechanism for government to engage national leaders from each of Canada's ten critical infrastructure sectors on the COVID-19 response. The national cross sector forum has been meeting weekly to provide critical infrastructure leaders with updates on health, given by our colleagues at the Public Health Agency of Canada, and on the federal government's planning efforts.
As you know, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are wide-ranging and affect multiple federal organizations and their partners. Given the number of actors and issues involved, coordination is key for ensuring a coherent whole-of-government response. We've taken a number of steps to bolster the government operations centre's capacity to coordinate the collective federal response to this emergency.
To promote greater collaboration and information sharing among the various implicated parties, we've embedded subject matter experts from a number of lead federal departments into the government operations centre. This includes Indigenous Services Canada, Health Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces. We've also embedded experts in critical infrastructure protection into the government operations centre to support greater collaboration with the private sector.
Lastly, we've embedded representatives from the Canadian Red Cross to support greater information sharing with civil society organizations, recognizing that there are many playing an important role. Using this enhanced capacity, we've created a dedicated situational awareness team within the government operations centre. This team is producing daily situational awareness products to inform our response.
In addition to supporting enhanced situational awareness, the government operations centre is also using its bolstered capacity to support federal planning. The centre has been working with multiple partners to develop the government's response plan. The objective of the plan is to identify the overarching roles and responsibilities and key activities of each federal department to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. This plan provides clarity on a number of cross-cutting issues, such as critical infrastructure, public health measures, business continuity planning and other issues. Provinces, territories, the private sector and the Canadian Red Cross have also been engaged in the development of this plan.
As I said, critical infrastructure protection is a key part of my department's response to the pandemic. My department is also working to help our external partners, including provinces, territories and municipalities, support the resilience of critical infrastructure systems. Our focus here is on protecting the assets, systems, networks and services essential to the health, safety and economic well-being of Canadians. A failure in any of these systems can have cascading effects on other sectors, which can amplify the economic, social and safety impacts on Canadians.
As you know, a number of jurisdictions within Canada have announced that business closures and border measures are in effect. Provincial and territorial announcements have highlighted that only organizations necessary to provide essential services are permitted to operate. Earlier this month, my department released a document entitled “Guidance on Essential Services and Functions in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic” to provide clear advice when it comes to determining the essential services and functions in the context of the pandemic.
I'd like to conclude by highlighting some areas that we'll be focusing on in our emergency collaboration moving forward. First and foremost, we'll continue to work with our partners to address the challenge presented by cyclical events. We're dealing with the response to COVID-19, but we must also be able to meet needs in the event of a flood or forest fire. Resources and personnel required for a response may already be deployed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We'll need to work closely with partners to properly coordinate a response to events such as floods.
We're working with our partners to support the long-term mental well-being of front-line workers, including public safety personnel.
Again, Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to provide some input. I look forward to answering your questions.