Marginal note:Responsibilities — United States

5. In consultation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister may develop joint emergency management plans with the relevant United States’ authorities and, in accordance with those plans, coordinate Canada’s response to emergencies in the United States and provide assistance in response to those emergencies.

Marginal note:Ministers’ responsibilities

• 6. (1) The emergency management responsibilities of each minister accountable to Parliament for a government institution are to identify the risks that are within or related to his or her area of responsibility — including those related to critical infrastructure — and to do the following in accordance with the policies, programs and other measures established by the Minister:

  • (a) prepare emergency management plans in respect of those risks;

  • (b) maintain, test and implement those plans; and

  • (c) conduct exercises and training in relation to those plans.

• Marginal note:Contents of emergency management plans

  (2) Each minister shall include in an emergency management plan

  • (a) any programs, arrangements or other measures to assist provincial governments and, through the provincial governments, local authorities;

  • (b) any federal-provincial regional plans;

  • (c) any programs, arrangements or other measures to provide for the continuity of the operations of the government institution in the event of an emergency; and

  • (d) in the case of war or other armed conflict, the programs, arrangements or other measures that

    • (i) support the overall defence effort,

    • (ii) support the Canadian Forces and the armed forces of Canada’s allies in the conduct of military operations,

    • (iii) contribute to meeting Canada’s military and civil wartime obligations to its allies, and

    • (iv) mitigate the effects of foreign armed conflict on Canada.

• Marginal note:Provincial emergencies

  (3) A government institution may not respond to a provincial emergency unless the government of the province requests assistance or there is an agreement with the province that requires or permits the assistance.

Marginal note:Orders or regulations

7. The Governor in Council may on the recommendation of the Minister make orders or regulations

• (a) respecting the preparation, maintenance, testing and implementation of emergency management plans;

• (b) respecting the use of federal civil resources in response to civil emergencies;

• (c) declaring a provincial emergency to be of concern to the federal government; and

• (d) authorizing the Minister to provide financial assistance to a province under paragraph 4(1)(j).