Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

MANAGING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE INTERDEPENDENCIES: THE ONTARIO APPROACH

BRUCE D. NELSON

Emergency Management Ontario, Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1 INTRODUCTION

In Canada, the federal government has developed a draft national strategy for critical infrastructure (CI) protection, which respects the jurisdictional prerogatives of the provincial and municipal levels of government and the propriety interests of the private sector. As such, the federal government uses a collaborative risk management–based strategy that aims to increase the resiliency of the national infrastructure through the development of trusted partnerships, the adoption of an all-hazards risk management approach, and the timely sharing of information. The national strategy recognizes the prerogative of provinces and territories to develop their own CI activities or programs and, as such, is highly supportive of these initiatives.

Within this national context, the province of Ontario developed the Ontario Critical Infrastructure Assurance Program (OCIAP). To properly understand OCIAP’s approach, we must understand the environment in which it was developed; the context of CI in Ontario’s emergency management program; the relationship of the three functions of public safety: preparedness and response, counterterrorism, and CI; and the development of the program itself.

This article then describes a program whose aim is to make Ontario’s CI more disaster resilient ...