Tue, November 03, 2009
OTTAWA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Canada is ill-prepared to deal with terror attacks, pandemics and other national emergencies because it lacks a mechanism for coordinating different government departments, the country's Auditor General said Tuesday.
Public Safety Canada, the agency established in 2003 and tasked with coordinating the government's response to emergencies, has yet to have its emergency response plan to be adopted and endorsed by the government and departments involved, according to the report released by Sheila Fraser to the Parliament.
As a result, the department does not have the authority to co-ordinate other federal departments, provinces and territories to prevent confusion during disasters, the report said.
Meanwhile, the department itself "has not exercised the leadership necessary" to meet its responsibilities, including having not figured out what critical national infrastructure need to be protected during such events, having been slow to develop a strategy to deal with cyber attacks on computer and communications networks and others, according to the report.
She also said the department, which has a number of staff vacancies, is under spending. It only spent half of its budget over the last three years.
