91.6 Public Safety in Emergencies
[Whereas,] Rationale:
Public safety is a critical responsibility for all levels of government. Citizens rely upon government leadership in times of crisis,
such as natural and man-made disasters. It has been demonstrated that not all communities have comparable abilities to handle
disasters. Systems for providing citizens with information and instructions during an emergency are generally quite inadequate.
In addition, there are multicultural and multilingual dimensions of emergency service which are currently not taken into account.
Canada has no civil defence training in place. Other countries train and support organized government forces for emergency
assistance.
[RESOLVED.] NCWC urges the Government of Canada to:
- Review recent disasters to discover ways and means of improving official and public responses to emergencies;
- Assess current emergency plans for adequacy and revise them as needed;
- Educate the public in matters of civil defence and disaster response;
- Initiate regular emergency plan practices in order that they may be tested and refined, and in order to familiarise
citizens with the procedures; - Develop a national system for communicating with citizens during an emergency;
- Provide multilingual emergency information and instruction;
- Provide multicultural training for emergency workers;
- Develop a national ‘Disaster Force’ similar to the Swedish National Rescue Service.