Every day, people in Canada are reminded that our world is changing. The risks to Canadians from natural disasters, made more frequent and more severe by climate change, are increasing. Continuously improving our collective response to extreme weather events, natural disasters and other emergencies, is a top priority for the Government of Canada.
Today, the Honourable Eleanor Olszewski, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for the Prairies Economic Development Agency of Canada, announced three key measures to strengthen federal emergency management. These measures include: enhanced federal coordination and emergency response capacity through a new operations centre at Public Safety Canada, launching a public and stakeholder engagement opportunity on the future of federal emergency management, and highlighting Budget 2025 investments to strengthen our ability to respond to future emergencies.
First, following the second worst wildfire season in Canadian history, Minister Olszewski has launched a national public engagement with Canadians and key emergency management stakeholders. The Government of Canada is seeking Canadians' views on the evolving role of the federal government in emergency management going forward and in partnership with provinces and territories. The public engagement is available now to the public online. Minister Olszewski will also be hosting round table discussions with emergency management stakeholders and meeting with Indigenous governments and leaders as well as provincial and territorial authorities as part of this engagement process.
Second, Minister Olszewski officially opened the new state-of-the-art facility that will house the federal Government Operations Centre (GOC). The new space is designed to help address the demands of the increasing pace of disaster frequency and severity and provides robust, secure, and modernized accommodations for the coordination of the federal response to emergencies across the country. The new site has the capacity to manage multiple full-scale emergency situations simultaneously and can accommodate representatives from key federal departments to optimize the flow of information and the coordination of resources. This new operations centre enhances the federal capacity to support provinces and territories and Canadians in times of need and will help deliver on our government's mission to protect Canadians from current and emerging threats.
Finally, Minister Olszewski highlighted investments made through Budget 2025 to strengthen the Canadian emergency management system. Budget 2025 invests $55.4 million over four years and $13.4 million ongoing to support the renewal of the National Public Alerting System, and $257.6 million over four years to lease waterbomber aircraft to bolster provincial and territorial aerial firefighting capacity. Budget 2025 also invests $40 million in the creation of the Youth Climate Corp that will equip young Canadians with the skills they need to respond to climate emergencies, including natural disasters, support recovery and strengthen community resilience across the country.
Emergency management is a shared responsibility with key roles being played by federal, provincial, territorial, and local governments. It also requires deep partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and all-sectors of society. Together we are building our capacity to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters to build a more sustainable and disaster-resilient Canada.
