The report, A Resilient Canada: Governance for National Security and Public Safety, is funded by the Conference Board’s Centre for National Security, which brings together senior executives from public and private-sector organizations. As the owners of the vast majority of critical infrastructure, the private sector has an increasingly important role to play in preventing and responding to security threats.
 
The report’s conclusions are based on research and interviews with individuals who played key roles in the responses to eight disasters over the past decade: the 1997 Red River flood, the 1998 ice storm in Eastern Canada, the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Toronto in 2003, the 2003 blackout in Ontario and the north-eastern United States, the effects of Hurricane Juan on Atlantic Canada in 2003, the 2005 London transit bombings, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
 
Establishing an effective governance structure requires focus on six key principles:
 
Leadership and accountability
Cooperation and coordination
Mandate and resources
Communications and transparency
Fairness
Continuous learning
 
Some threats—like the Red River flooding and hurricanes in New Orleans— can be predicted. Other threats, such as the 9/11 attacks, are much more difficult to anticipate. In all of these circumstances, the governance principles provide the foundation for an effective response.
 
In the case of a predictable threat, the governance principles should be used to formulate a response plan well in advance. Where incidents cannot be easily anticipated, these principles enable organizations to rapidly establish an effective response.
 
The opportunities for action include: recognizing governance problems in Canada; taking a principle-based approach to prepare us for the unexpected; establishing clear governance structures for high probability threats; and practicing regularly, with both public and private-sector participants involved in these training exercises.
 
The report is publicly available at www.e-library.ca. It is the first of a series of reports, each of which will focus on one of the six governance principles.