Splitting the public safety and emergency preparedness portfolio into separate cabinet files comes in anticipation of more frequent natural disasters and emergencies—and is a move long in coming due to the unwieldy nature of such a big job, say politicos and experts.

Liberal MP Bill Blair (Scarborough Southwest, Ont.) has managed both portfolios since Nov. 20, 2019, but was tapped to lead emergency preparedness when Prime Minster Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) unveiled his 38-member cabinet on Oct. 26. Former immigration minister Marco Mendicino (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) was handed public safety.

Elliot Hughes, a former Liberal staffer and senior adviser at Summa Strategies, said this division indicates the federal government foresees Canada facing more emergencies and disasters over the next few years due to climate change “Perhaps having someone fully dedicated and with very good organizing experience, which Bill Blair does have, might have made a lot more sense way back when the positions were combined. But now that we’re getting more and more emergencies, maybe we need a single point of contact going forward,” he said.

Ministers have yet to receive their mandate letters, but Mr. Hughes said that during emergencies like natural disasters, Mr. Blair will be in close contact with Minister of National Defence Anita Anand (Oakville, Ont.) and will act as a “conduit with the provinces and the provincial counterparts to deal with them as they arise.”  While Mr. Hughes worked as director of policy in the office of the defence minister, during emergencies he would engage with then minister of public safety Ralph Goodale, who held the post from 2015 to 2019. “That connection is a very important one so that things can run seamlessly and smoothly and that there is strong communication because the last thing you want is miscommunication at that level,” he said.

Mr. Mendicino was chosen as minister of public safety, according to Mr. Hughes, because he has become a “useful caucus ally” for the prime minister, and is well liked. “He proved himself to be very adept in his previous role, and he comported himself and did well in what were very difficult circumstances, particularly towards the end of his time” at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, he said. “It shows that he’s ready to be moved up into a big job in public safety, which is extremely complex and carries a lot of responsibility for a number of different files.”

Ministers who have done well in other portfolios need to be “engaged and given more responsibility,” according to Mr. Hughes, which often means other established ministers need to be demoted or even ejected, such as was the case with former foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, Ont.) falling from cabinet, with Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Que.) taking his portfolio. “You need to keep those younger faces engaged and given that kind of responsibility. It’s a tricky balance, and that’s why cabinet making is very, very hard to do,” he said.

Nirupama Agrawal, professor of disaster and emergency management at York University, said the decision to create two ministers to address public safety and emergency preparedness could “be due to the multifaceted and complex challenges Canada faces right now.” She said future pandemics, climate change-related disasters, and cybersecurity are likely a central focus for the federal government, especially since cybersecurity-related risks to critical infrastructure are “areas in which Canada hasn’t developed the capacities and adaptability to deal with.”

Prof. Agrawal said that aside from any political considerations involved in the decision to split the position of minister of public safety and emergency preparedness into two, she believes it will also allow for better collaboration when preparing for and responding to disasters. “The thinking behind the decision is probably that the COVID situation has made things very complicated, and cybersecurity and our changing climate are top of mind as well.”

Public safety and emergency preparedness job ‘too big’ for one person

Mr. Mendicino, whose law career included working as a federal prosecutor for 10 years and being president of the Association of Justice Counsel, ran and won in 2015 with 48.8 per cent of the vote to Conservative Joe Oliver’s 42 per cent. He subsequently served as parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, and then to the minister of infrastructure and communities.  After winning re-election in 2019, when he secured 53 per cent of the vote to Conservative Chani Aryeh-Bain’s 33 per cent, Mr. Mendicino was chosen to serve in Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet as minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship.

Peter Van Loan, a former Conservative MP for York­–Simcoe, Ont., who served as minister of public safety from Oct. 30, 2008 to Jan. 19, 2010, said Mr. Mendicino will be “a big asset” in the role. “I would say it’s better to have two or even three ministers co-ordinating, rather than one trying to do it all by themselves and in most cases probably not doing a very good job.”

Mr. Van Loan said the creation of Public Safety Canada, which came in December 2003, and its related cabinet position as a successor to the solicitor general role, was done as a “function of the post-9/11 environment, in an effort to make sure all those different parts were working in parallel.” But he said when the position becomes too sprawling for one minister to handle, there is a risk that there may be no political oversight.

In his personal experience, Mr. Van Loan said he found that the portfolio was “too big” for one person. Between dealing with Corrections Canada, the Canadian Border Service Agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, as well as emergency preparedness and counterterrorism, Mr. Van Loan said he would be “killing myself until two or three in the morning, every night, chasing down intelligence stuff and reading correspondence and so on, just to get everything right.” 

Mr. Van Loan said there are two ways to handle the position: by being “a control freak kind of person, and someone who wants to actually be on top of your files,” or by taking a hands-off approach and delegating responsibility to other officials, which is “a category I think most public safety ministers probably fall into.”

Flaws in Public Safety Canada’s creation have led to an ‘unco-ordinated’ response to disasters

David Redman, a retired lieutenant-colonel and former head of Alberta’s Emergency Management Agency, said until the Liberal government releases its mandate letters for the ministers, which will provide details of the functions they will serve, it won’t be known how Mr. Blair and Mr. Mendicino will serve in their new roles. But he said he was pessimistic that the split would improve Canada’s ability to respond to disasters and emergencies, calling it a “huge flop,” since 2003.

His main criticism is that Public Safety Canada’s emergency management is made up of the four functions, which are sometimes referred to as phases, of emergency management: prevention and mitigation, emergency preparedness, responding to events, and recovering from disasters. But Mr. Blair, and all ministers before him, have only been given the responsibility of emergency preparedness.  Mr. Redman said this is a flaw that goes back to when the position was first created in the period following 9/11. He said there was “no understanding” among the creators of Public Safety Canada that there are four functions to emergency management and, “they thought it was just about being prepared.” That is why, according to Mr. Redman, the response to fires, floods, tornadoes, and terrorism has been “disjointed, unco-ordinated, and incorrect, and Public Safety Canada has never repaired that.”

“How do you split the operations centre that is supposed to co-ordinate the 13 provinces and territories in a major emergency or disaster, if the preparedness element is pulled out and the other three elements are left in a ministry?” he said. “To me, this looks like someone in the Prime Minister’s Office still doesn’t understand the words ’emergency management,'” he said.  Mr. Redman said it remains to be seen whether Mr. Blair will be in charge of all four functions of emergency management, or whether the other three elements will be left back in public safety. “Either way, it shows this government is paying lip service to emergency management, and that is clearly the case based on the federal response to COVID-19.”

Mr. Redman also said the fact that Mr. Blair has gained an additional role as president of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada is simply a way for him to “get two bumps in salary instead of one as a reward for good behaviour.”

This is a reproduction of an article featured in the Hill Times.