Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Madam Deputy Minister. Good afternoon everyone.
As our deputy minister has just stated, the government's first responsibility is to protect the safety and security of our citizens. My branch, the emergency management and national security branch of the department, supports activities that contribute to protecting the security of Canada and Canadians.
In our branch, we have approximately 300 employees who are located in Ottawa and our 11 regional offices, in all 10 provincial capitals and Yellowknife.
The branch has essentially four key functions. The first is emergency planning, warning, and response, including the Government Operations Centre and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre; second is emergency management policy; the third would be national security policy; and fourth is programming for emergency preparedness and recovery.
I will tell you a little bit more about each of those. On operations, we have a directorate that deals directly with events and emergencies and is responsible for a number of activities. It develops and implements the national emergency response system by providing effective coordination of the numerous national players that must act swiftly when national emergencies arise. It also manages the Government Operations Centre. This is a centre that monitors emerging threats and provides around-the-clock coordination in support of federal activities in a national emergency. It produces, disseminates, and analyzes daily threat information and it does national contingency planning.
Regarding emergencies, Canada has adopted an all-hazards approach that combines emergency management, the protection of essential infrastructures and national security with policies, programs and operational initiatives representing the four phases of emergency management and national security, namely: prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
The Emergency Management Branch is responsible for advising and assisting the Minister with emergency management; for reviewing federal legislative provisions in the area of emergency management; for developing a national disaster mitigation strategy; for protecting vital infrastructures and ensuring cyber security; and for implementing the public safety science and technology program.
In the area of national security, the National Security Branch provides independent advice and assists the minister with national security matters, including advice on CSIS activities and review, ministerial certificates and directives, advice and recommendations pertaining to parliamentary commissions and reviews, particularly with respect to the Anti-Terrorism Act and the O'Connor Commission, immigration issues such as security certificates, advice on lists of terrorist organizations and the funding of terrorist activities, legislative provisions relating to national security issues and finally, international partnerships such as the G8 and the Canada-US partnership.
The third area is preparedness and recovery. This directorate deals with planning for both an emergency and the recovery phase. It's responsible for, among other things, the Canadian Emergency Management College and the national training program. We also have a national exercise program. We're responsible for a certain aspect of business continuity planning. We're also very heavily involved in coordinating the work of the Government of Canada on pandemic influenza planning. There are also the programs the deputy minister mentioned on joint emergency preparedness and disaster financial assistance.
I think, to be brief, I'll note some of our key achievements this year so far. One is that we've developed an emergency management framework doctrine. We're hoping to have it approved at the federal-provincial-territorial meeting of emergency management ministers in the fall. We've also introduced the proposed new Emergency Management Act, which I'm sure you'll be talking more about. And the minister and the department have ratified a new agreement between us and the Red Cross for surge capacity and their expertise.
I had a number of other facts and figures, but I think we'll save those for later.
Mr. Chairman, we do see public safety as definitely a work in progress. It's never done, and we need to maintain our vigilance. Our focus this year in the branch will be the continued development of our national emergency response system with all of the stakeholders--the provinces; the territories; the private sector; and the international players as well, the Government of the United States in particular.
We're going to provide ongoing support for the review of our national security system, including the review of the Anti-terrorism Act and ensuring that the department and the branch have adequate capacity to do the role that is ours.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.