Strengthening the resilience of communities to disasters continues to be a priority for Canada. Public Safety Canada’s National Disaster Mitigation Program (NDMP) is part of the Government’s commitment to build safer and more resilient communities and focuses on cost-sharing flood mitigation efforts with provinces and territories. This model allows us to identify, plan for and prevent flood risks and the costs that Canadians incur as a result of flooding.

We restored funding to Heavy Urban Search and Rescue teams in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Manitoba, and work with Montreal and Halifax to build HUSAR capacity. These teams play a critical role in responding to some of the worst disasters in Canada.

The past year, the Government of Canada also

  • Released a new Emergency Management Framework for Canada with the provinces and territories;
  • Released the first three documents in the Federal Floodplain Mapping Guideline Series, which aims to help all levels of government better understand and reduce flood risk;
  • Committed to better integrate climate resilience into the National Building Code;
  • Launched Canada in a Changing Climate: Advancing our Knowledge for Action, the national assessment of how Canada’s climate is changing, the impacts of these changes and how we are adapting to reduce risk. Over the next four years, watch for a series of authoritative science and knowledge products that will serve as a resource for Canadians, raising awareness of the key issues facing our country and providing information to support sound adaptation decisions and actions. Canadians can engage with this process and share their views by completing surveys, submitting relevant documents and registering as expert reviewers; and
  • Committed in Budget 2017 to invest $2 billion for a Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF)to help communities adapt to a changing climate while mitigating the impacts of future disasters. Once launched, the DMAF will provide funding for infrastructure projects, including through natural infrastructure, to help communities better withstand the potential impacts of natural hazards such as floods, wildfires and droughts, and ensure the continuity of essential community services. More details on this new program will become available in the coming months.

We continue to work collaboratively among our networks of federal, provincial and territorial emergency management organizations, first responders and voluntary organizations, Indigenous peoples and other stakeholders and communities, to support a whole-of-society approach to disaster risk reduction, which includes emergency management.

To that effect, the Eighth Annual National Roundtable on Disaster Risk Reduction will be held in conjunction with Canada’s Climate Change Adaptation Platform this year for the first time. The platforms will meet jointly in Halifax in October 23-24, 2017, to seek opportunities to advance collaboration on disaster risks reduction and climate change.

Submitted content by Public Safety Canada / Sécurité publique Canada

To learn more visit: https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/