Emergency preparedness and resilience: Community-based fact sheets, 2014
by Jillian Boyce, Shana Conroy and Dyna Ibrahim
Emergencies and disasters are capable of causing significant and devastating negative impacts—be they social, economic or environmental—in the communities they strike. At the community level, preparedness and resilience are particularly important as emergencies and disasters are often community events—experienced locally by residents and managed locally by municipalities, often in partnership with provincial and federal agencies. Municipal governments have a critical role in emergency and disaster preparedness and resilience as it is estimated that they are the first line of response to over 90% of emergencies and disasters in Canada (Federation of Canadian Municipalities 2006). Accordingly, municipalities have recognized the growing risks associated with natural and human-induced emergencies and disasters, and they have collectively acknowledged the importance of risk identification, prevention, preparedness and mitigation, in the community and at all levels of government (Federation of Canadian Municipalities 2006).
The Survey of Emergency Preparedness and Resilience (SEPR), carried out for the first time in 2014, was developed in partnership with Defence Research and Development Canada’s Centre for Security Science and Public Safety Canada. The purpose of the SEPR is to improve the understanding of community preparedness and resilience across Canada’s provinces by collecting data related to the ability of residents and communities to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from major emergencies and disasters. Provincial and national estimates from the SEPR are available in two previously released Statistics Canada reports: "Emergency preparedness in Canada, 2014" and "Canadians’ experiences with emergencies and disasters, 2014." In addition, Statistics Canada prepared an infographic, "Emergency preparedness and planning in Canada," to highlight results.
The focus for this analysis, however, is on community-level fact sheets that highlight results on preparedness and resilience. Each fact sheet outlines the following: risk awareness and anticipated sources of help in an emergency or disaster; prior lifetime experience with a major emergency or disaster; emergency planning, precautionary and fire safety behaviours; and, social networks and sense of belonging. The fact sheets are divided into five regions: the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairie provinces and British Columbia.Note 1 There are 63 community-level fact sheets, and there is one additional fact sheet per province with results from residents of smaller communities.
Reference
Federation of Canadian Municipalities. 2006. Emergency: Municipalities Missing from Disaster Planning. (accessed September 12, 2016).
Note
- Date modified: