I think it's a work in progress.
Depending on the province, a number of them have used software. I don't want to advertise any particularly, but Telus has E Team. It's been used by British Columbia for quite a while and is used extensively by Alberta. Ontario has their own software, which they wrote, and Quebec uses Neptune4. There are a number of federal departments that have started to use E Team. For example, the Health Agency and Health Canada have started to use it, as well as ourselves.
For us, it is an interim package and it is not fulsome enough for the needs we have for a national disaster. As in our plans and response system, we will develop a system that will be interoperable with provincial systems. We won't worry about hooking in municipally. We'll work on hooking in provincially and leave the provincial folks to click in municipally.
If I may also respond on the systems, technology supports the systems and how they actually function. In most provinces, and certainly at the local level—the U.S. system equally follows it, but it is known as the incident command system—it is a system we have used and adapted federally. It is very similar to or the same as the ones used in the provinces, and a very similar one is used at the pointy end of the tactical level. It is also very similar to the military system, the continental system.
On functions, as I mentioned before, there are a lot of similarities in working with the provinces. We have identified seven key functions we all do that are the same. We're now in the process of asking, how exactly are we going to share situational awareness to develop a common operating picture?
We were down in Washington about three or four weeks ago and took a look at what they call COP, which is sort of cute. Common operational picture is software they're developing. We want to make sure we're equally compatible with their particular system. As I said, it's a work in progress.
Again, going back to this legislation, by exercising leadership in emergency management, it allows us to then take the ball and lead in the development with other folks. They're wondering who is going to take the ball with this one. In a lot of areas, this legislation lays out the department's mandate.