Closing the Canadian Emergency Preparedness Capability Gap: Data Interoperability Is the Key
Some experts think that COVID-19 is a wake-up call to the more negative societal impacts we can expect to experience soon because of climate change as well as other potentially damaging trends such as cyber security attacks. By all accounts, it seems reasonable now to expect, for example, more severe weather events, more demonstrations as we transition to a more equitable society, more acts of terrorism, and so on – including more severe pandemics. Until human beings learn to collectively achieve a balance with nature, and to better collaborate internationally on a range of existential issues, people operating in the fields of crisis and emergency management, public safety, security and defence can expect to be increasingly busy as major events pile up. This projected set of circumstances applies to governments at all levels as well as industry, NGOs, and First Nations. The entirety of our social fabric is increasingly at risk from major emergencies, and no one is immune.
In the North American context, it can be argued that, politics aside, American communities are in better shape than Canadian ones from an emergency preparedness standpoint. This is because of the system of federal grants provided to local governments in the United States for complying with recognized emergency management standards such as NFPA 1600 (Standard on Continuity, Emergency, and Crisis Management). No such system of emergency preparedness grants is available to communities in Canada. Consequently, government guidelines and industry standards, such as CSA Z1600-17 (Emergency and Continuity Management Program), have not been widely adopted here because they can be very expensive to implement.
Generally, Canadian governments at all levels across the country are not where they need to be from an overall emergency management perspective. There is a gap between what is expected of them or recommended to them and the funding required to implement costly emergency management programs. Moreover, where federal funding and more specific guidance on the requirement for and application of technology for emergency management in the United States has resulted in the development and adoption of incident management system (IMS) products south of the border, commercial IMS products have very low adoption rates in Canada at least partially because of cost.
Canadian government and industry organizations, among other stakeholders in emergency management and public safety, have been left between the proverbial rock and hard place. By and large, Canadian organizations concerned with crisis and emergency management are underfunded and furnished with minimal non-specific guidance on the application of technology. In our digital age, the application of technology represents both a mandatory requirement and an opportunity to significantly narrow the emergency management capability gap with respect to the full and growing range of natural and human-induced hazards we all face day to day. To a certain extent, the application of appropriate technology can even make up for a lack of funding if properly implemented.
Although existing standards do not offer much guidance on how technology should be applied to crisis and emergency management programs, they do shed some light on what is expected to achieve compliance. An executive level summary paraphrasing this guidance is presented below.
- An incident management capability should be developed to obtain accurate information about an incident, understand the expected response, and maintain current information regarding the implementation of that response.
- Management of both the operational response to an incident and the provision of emergency information should be effectively integrated and coordinated within the incident management system (IMS).
- The IMS should enable intelligence and information sharing as well as real-time risk assessment.
- The IMS should track information received, decisions made, resources deployed, and actions taken during the incident.
- The IMS should be integrated with organizational business processes.
- Social media should be used to deliver emergency preparedness, prevention, and response information to the public.
- Emergency communications and warning systems should be established.
The above is all well and good as far as it goes but for the following:
- The Incident Command System (ICS) concept of operations that has been adopted by most emergency management and public safety organizations in Canada is intended for good reason to transcend both agency and jurisdictional boundaries.
- Many emergency plans call for an integrated whole-of-government response based upon the coordination of individual departmental plans enabling all departments to maximize the use of all available resources.
- NFPA 1600 correctly states that “data interoperability is a key foundation of crisis and emergency management”.
These three points raise the dreaded spectre of the lack interoperability and coordination during large-scale, multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional emergency response operations wherein timely information and intelligence sharing become critical elements to effective decision making and management. Fortunately, advances in technology, which can help to overcome this age-old problem through data modelling solutions and the integration of business processes, are now available. But interoperability and effective coordination can only be achieved through the practical application of information technology, and most emergency management and public safety organizations in Canada still have a lot of work to do in the implementation of their respective government mandates.
The good news is that, today, current technology can be applied strategically and affordably to the whole process of emergency management with dramatic effect in raising the standard and effectiveness of government and industry program implementation. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but technology today is flexible enough to meet any mission requirement or operational concept. A systematic approach to supporting emergency management and incident command processes with appropriate technology where it can be leveraged optimally will enable all stakeholders to participate in the reduction of risks to people, property, business, and the environment. Collectively, we have the expertise and resources. We can do this!
