That was the message at one of the sessions of the Conference Board of Canada’s recent Second Public-Private Sector Summit on National Security.

Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services Commissioner of Emergency Management Julian Fantino said recent events have shown that no one agency is able to deal with a crises on its own and that failure to work together can mean, in addition to the destruction of careers, the loss of lives and property.

“With every emergency, one realizes a crises can begin as a local event and escalate into a major national crises so how we handle these are a critical item for us,” he said.

“We have to have overarching strategies; we can’t just operate in isolation,” said Fantino. “There is a great need to develop linkages and build those relationships ahead of an incident. Those plans have to be in place, gaps identified and filled. We need to create a united front as we go forward.”

Bill C-12 is the federal government’s response to meeting those concerns, says Patricia Hassard, the senior assistant deputy minister of Public Safety Canada. Tabled by Public Safety Minister at the beginning of Emergency Preparedness Week from May 7 to 13, the new legislation outlines the implementation of a modern emergency management system including the four pillars of prevention, mitigation, preparedness and recovery as well as critical infrastructure protection.

It also outlines methods of cooperation with other jurisdictions including the provincial governments, non-government organizations like the Red Cross and the private sector, promoting constant communication and information sharing as well as provisions to protect sensitive information provided by the private sector regarding critical infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Hassard said the federal government has frequently been criticized for not showing leadership in times of disaster. “People ask, ”˜are we prepared?’ To borrow from the minister when he introduced the legislation, we are prepared but we can always be better and that is what we try to do at the federal level. The question is often asked whether something can actually be prevented. If not, we can certainly take actions to mitigate the extent of a disaster and the damage it causes.”

Michel Doré, Associate Deputy Mininster for the Ministère de la Sécurité publique with the province of Quebec said, for the sake of those who are finding themselves given new roles in crises management,  there is a need for more contingency planning before there is a loss of more experienced people.

“With the challenges we all have, considering the labour force we have,” he says. “There are a lot of retirements happening in the coming years and there is a significant challenge on transferring this know-how before people go away with it in order to reinject that experience and expertise to those managers who will take on the challenge of building up our resilience.”