Public Safety Canada (PS; , SP) is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for (most) matters of public safety, emergency management, national security, and emergency preparedness in Canada.

The department is responsible to Parliament through the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness.

History

Prior to 1988, the agency responsible for the "public safety" portfolio was known as Emergency Preparedness Canada, which was created under the auspices of the Department of National Defence. In 1988, the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness was established by the Emergency Preparedness Act.

With the purpose of creating a single entity with responsibility for ensuring public safety in Canada, the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness was created in December 2003 during a reorganization of the federal government. Created as a direct result of lessons learned from the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, the department is in many ways similar to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; it does not cover the protection of maritime sovereignty (which is covered by the Canadian Forces, Transport Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada), and it does not have general jurisdiction over immigration (it took over immigration enforcement functions most visibly at borders and ports of landing, but the separate department Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada manages application and screening, settlement services, and naturalization).

PSEPC became legally established when the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Act came into force on 4 April 2005.

Governance and organization

<!-- This information was moved from Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Act -->The legal authority of Public Safety Canada is enabled through the Emergency Management Act (2007) and the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Act, S.C. 2005, c. 10, which came into force on 4 April 2005 during the Martin government. The department became legally established when this Act was given Royal Assent.

PS has 12 regional offices, which are located across the country and are organized into 5 regions:

  • Atlantic — St-John's, NL (The John Cabot Building); Charlottetown, PE (National Bank Tower); Dartmouth, NS (Eric Spicer Building); and Fredericton, NB
  • Quebec and Nunavut — Montreal, QC (Square-Victoria Street)
  • Ontario — Toronto, ON (Bloor Street)
  • Prairies and Northwest Territories — Winnipeg, MB (Broadway); Regina, SK ( Regina); Edmonton, AB (Baker Centre Building); and Yellowknife, NT (Greenstone Building)
  • British Columbia and Yukon — Burnaby, BC (Production Way); and Saanichton, BC.

Spending

Together, the agencies of Public Safety Canada have an annual budget of more than CA$9 billion and over 66,000 employees working across the country.

  • National security: $30.1 million,
  • Community safety: $731 million,
  • Emergency management: $1.81 billion,
  • Internal services: $68.7 million.

Public Safety portfolio

Most of the department comprises organizations that were previously placed under the Department of Solicitor General of Canada, however the reorganization of several federal departments and ministries added the Canada Border Services Agency to the portfolio, after the two streams of the former Canada Customs and Revenue Agency were split in 2003. In addition, the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP) from the Department of National Defence was also brought into the department.

In addition to the department, there are five agencies and three review bodies within the Public Safety portfolio headed by the Minister of Public Safety.

Organizations

  • Agencies:
  • Canada Border Services Agency
  • Canadian Security Intelligence Service
  • Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre
  • Correctional Service of Canada
  • Parole Board of Canada
  • Royal Canadian Mounted Police
  • Canadian Firearms Program
  • Canadian Police College
  • Canadian Police Information Centre
  • Criminal Intelligence Service Canada
  • Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams
  • Parliamentary Protective Service (through an agreement with the speakers of the House of Commons and Senate)
  • Review bodies:
  • Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP
  • Office of the Correctional Investigator
  • RCMP External Review Committee
  • Other units:
  • Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre
  • National Search and Rescue Secretariat

Core responsibilities

The core responsibilities of Public Safety Canada include:

  • provides funding to the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking — an organization that operates a multilingual, 24/7 toll-free Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline.
  • supports the coming-into-force of the remaining provisions under former Bill C-71, An Act to amend certain Acts and Regulations in relation to firearms.
  • delivers the First Nations Policing Program — a programme supporting police services in First Nations and Inuit communities
  • Emergency management — strengthening an all-hazards approach to national emergency management in order to 'help prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from emergency events. Public Safety Canada:
  • works to advance a Public Safety Broadband Network (PSBN) — a secure high-speed wireless data communications network that can be used by emergency responders and public safety personnel to communicate with each other in emergency situations and during day-to-day operations. In 2017-2018, the Canadian government introduced a Federal PSBN Task Team to consult provincial/territorial and municipal governments, first responders, the private sector, and others on implementation models for a PSBN in Canada.
  • support the long-term policy of its program for Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) — a specialized form of urban search and rescue.
  • leads Canada's engagement with the International COSPAS-SARSAT Programme Agreement — a satellite-based search-and-rescue system.
  • supports and reviews the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA) — a federal government program that provides financial assistance to provincial/territorial governments following large-scale natural disasters.

Other operations and initiatives

Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence

The Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre) leads the Canadian government's efforts to "counter radicalization to violence." Rather than managing or advising on individual cases, it addresses the issue in terms of broad strategy. It is located at Public Safety Canada headquarters in Ottawa.

The Minister of Public Safety was given the mandate over the Centre in 2015; the federal budget the following year allocated $35 million over five years to establish and support the Centre, in addition to $10 million per year on-going. The Centre was officially launched in 2017.

As of 2019‑2020 onward, the Fund has been promised $7 million available each year for existing and new projects.

The events that are tracked conform to the "Emergency Management Framework for Canada's" definition of a disaster and meet one or more of the following criteria:

The campaign was launched in 2006 by Public Safety Canada in collaboration with the Canadian Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, and The Salvation Army.

Canada-United States Cross-Border Crime Forum

The Canada-United States Cross-Border Crime Forum (CBCF) is a joint Ministerial forum that brings together senior law enforcement and justice officials from several organizations in Canada and the United States.

Hosted by Public Safety Canada, Justice Canada, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the CBCF addresses issues of transnational crime, such as organized crime, counter-terrorism, smuggling, economic crime. CBCF was formed in 1997 with an operational focus, originally addressing smuggling across the eastern regions of both countries.