Does Canada need a national emergency response agency?

The federal minister responsible for emergency preparedness hasn’t ruled out the possibility of creating a national emergency response agency, which at least one expert says Canada desperately needs.

Harjit Sajjan, the minister of emergency preparedness, was asked Thursday if Canada needs to form a federal emergency response organization, similar to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Sajjan didn’t rule it out, but said Ottawa is already committed to providing emergency assistance to provinces when called upon.

“We need to make sure the right resources are put into the right place,” he said, adding that the federal government is training more firefighters through departments such as Natural Resources Canada.

Sajjan was speaking in Edmonton in the wake of the wildfire that destroyed a third of the town of Jasper, Alta.

“Given the intensity of the fire, every request [for assistance] was approved,” the minister said.

Currently, Ottawa can’t provide natural disaster assistance without a provincial government asking for it first.

Ali Asgary, a professor of disaster and emergency management at York University in Toronto, says it’s a “no brainer” that Canada should have some type of overarching disaster agency.

“The existing system that we have in place — mostly relying on local emergency response or provincial or territorial emergency response —  is neither sufficient nor able to respond effectively and on time,” he told CBC News.

Asgary said two of the biggest shortfalls of Canada’s current system is a lack of both risk assessments and of planning before disasters strike. Both could be done by a centralized agency, he said.

“Once you have a good risk assessment in place for the whole of Canada, then you can have mitigation measures adapted… and provide guidelines for the implementation of those,” he said.

WATCH | Canada ‘not ready’ for new wildfire reality, says award-winning author: 

Canada ‘not ready’ for new wildfire reality, says award-winning author

Canada is not prepared for the reality that it will have more devastating wildfires that ravage towns like Jasper, Alta., John Vaillant tells CBC’s Power & Politics. Vaillant, the Pulitzer-nominated author of Fire Weather, says Canada must take “meaningful action” to mitigate the damage.

Last year, as Canada was dealing with its worst wildfire season on record, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested his government was looking into creating some kind of national disaster response agency.

“We need to … make sure we’re doing everything we can to predict, protect, and act ahead of more of these events coming,” he said at the time.

“So we continue to discuss and look at new mechanisms and new ways of doing that.”

Military sent to assist 

Joanna Kanga, Sajjan’s press secretary, told CBC News that the idea of having a federal disaster response agency “has merits” but didn’t say if one was in the works.

“We will continue to explore all proposed options and work in collaboration with our partners to enhance our preparation,” Kanga said in an email.

As with natural disasters in the past, part of the federal response in Jasper fire has been to call in the armed forces to assist. But military leaders have been warning that continuing to rely on the armed forces as a disaster response agency is not sustainable.

The House of Commons defence committee has called on Ottawa to consider creating a permanent disaster management workforce that can be mobilized quickly in the event of wildfires, hurricanes and other natural calamities.

The committee’s report, released earlier this summer, stopped short of suggesting the creation of a full-fledged federal disaster management agency like FEMA.

But the committee did say Ottawa must “work with provinces and territories to invest in their emergency management, disaster mitigation and response assistance to ensure they only rely on the Canadian Armed Forces as a last resort.”

Asgary says, rather than consistently turning to the Forces, the federal government needs to look at having a dedicated team that is specifically trained to step in during natural disasters — a team that is “ready to mobilize, has the resources, has already trained enough to be able to do what they are expected to do. Not as their secondary or surgery responsibility or job that is currently in the case.”

Robin Cox, a professor of disaster and emergency management at Royal Roads University in Victoria, says there can be some drawbacks to a more centralized system, such as lack of local community participation. But she says there is always a possibility for a balance to be struck.

“I think we need to be thinking more about how we bring those two concepts together more effectively in order to address these escalating risks,” she said.

Both Cox and Asgary say governments need to be taking a more proactive stance with disaster preparedness and mitigation.

“I think there has been a shift over the last decade to focus more on preparedness. But we’ve got a long way to go,” Cox said.

A recent federal report provides specific recommendations for wildfire prevention and mitigation. It recommends “proactive” fire prevention techniques like prescribed burnings, removing hazardous fire fuels like dry shrubs and grasslands, and educating the public on how to limit human-caused wildfires.

Questions of jurisdiction

The situation in Jasper has offered a glimpse into some of the jurisdictional issues that both Cox and Asgary say can slow an emergency response.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Thursday pointed out that the province requires a green light from Ottawa to fly provincial water bombers over federal lands.

“The ultimate decision on who can bring resources in is with Parks Canada, in unified command with the municipality of Jasper,” she said at a news conference.

“We can’t just send equipment into federal airspace without co-ordination.”

Smith said she would like the province to be integrated into the unified command so that it could more readily provide provincial resources.

Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis, at the same conference, echoed Smith’s point but said that he has had productive conversations with Sajjan on the issue.

Sajjan “has recognized that there might be some gaps,” Ellis said.

“We’ve been talking already about … how Alberta can be a part of the decision-making process.”

Sajjan later noted that Parks Canada has a wildfire response team that also assists in emergencies that fall outside of federal lands.

But Cox and Asgary say such communications and jurisdictional issues could be addressed by being better prepared.

“We need to be investing more attention, more intentionality and more resourcing so that by the time we get to a disaster like the Jasper Park fire, we have practised the kinds of decision-making and outreach that we need to do so that it’s much more seamless,” Cox said.

Asgary says that kind of planning and co-ordination is exactly the kind of thing a national emergency management agency could do.

“We really don’t have time in such situations to think about all these things. Fire is not waiting for us to make a decision, waiting for us to make coordination. It’s happening,” he said.