Ottawa, Ontario
Throughout Emergency Preparedness Week, the Government of Canada is working alongside partners across the country to highlight how important it is to Be Ready for Anything. The past two years have shown all of us that large scale emergencies - like a pandemic - can strain our resources. When these events happen, the federal government is a partner for provinces and territories ensuring that their needs are met and responded to quickly through Requests for Federal Assistance (RFAs). This includes supporting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in responding to events such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly frequent climate-change related disasters from coast-to-coast-to-coast.
Today, the Honourable Bill Blair, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness, announced $150 million for the Supporting a Humanitarian Workforce to Respond to COVID-19 and Other Large-Scale Emergencies (HWF) program to support both capacity building and domestic response resources to four of Canada's top emergency management NGOs.
To date, the Government of Canada has provided more than $78 million to the Canadian Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, The Salvation Army, and the Search and Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada (SARVAC) through this investment. This funding has allowed these organizations to mobilize in response to emerging events more quickly and deploy critical on-the-ground support to provincial, territorial and local governments.
Specifically, this funding has gone to support vital services on the ground for several provinces and all three territories that have requested federal assistance, including critical care nurses in hospitals, support in long-term care facilities and retirement homes, and epidemic prevention and control, and vaccination support. It has also supported deployments to respond to outbreaks in remote Indigenous communities.
In 2022-23, the program will continue to provide funding for these organizations to build their capacity, hire staff, rapidly deploy to areas impacted by emergencies, and fund deployments in response to RFAs that may arise. With this funding, organizations will continue to maintain a highly skilled and qualified group of emergency responders and emergency management professionals, will help fund the development of emergency management systems, deliver top-tier training, and acquire some equipment needed for rapid mobilization.
