Nova Scotia unprepared for disaster

If B.C. was prepared on paper for disaster, then Nova Scotia’s official state of readiness is a veritable dumpster fire.

In the wake of heavy rainfall, and in the midst of a pandemic, Nova Scotians are acutely aware of massive flooding in British Columbia that has engulfed homes, displaced families, taken lives, and cost billions in damage.

All this damage happened to a province that had updated its Emergency Management Act in 2021 and developed plans to tackle a range of disasters, including mass fatalities, droughts, earthquakes, wildfires, dam failures, foreignanimal disease, spills and environmental damage. B.C.'s focus is on public safety, infrastructure protection and disaster recovery as well as easily accessible, plain-language disaster preparation and recovery documents for public use.

If B.C. was prepared on paper for disaster, then

Nova Scotia's official state of readiness is a veritable dumpster fire. In November 2016, our auditor general examined critical infrastructure resiliency and determined that Nova Scotia has not assigned responsibility for the provincial critical infrastructure program, has not identified all operators or owners of critical infrastructure, and has not done what it signed on to do according to the National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure.

Furthermore, our emergency procedures are governed by the Emergency Management Act, which has not been updated since 2014.

In the six years since the audit, the Emergency Management Office (EMO) has not released a single emergency management plan to the public.

In fact, the only plan on the EMO website is a guide called Community Event Emergency Response Planning that was released in

January 2014, almost eight years ago.

In addition, the only auditor general-recommended action that was accomplished since 2016 was completion of a list of critical infrastructures. This was used to determine “essential workers” during the pandemic and it mirrors the list from the national strategy. On the EMO website, they state that they are responsible for “integrated emergency planning and coordination with municipalities,” “supporting municipal authorities in emergency preparedness and planning,” and “providing public education and awareness about emergencies.”

Also, they prioritize “updating the All-Hazards Emergency Plan that supports the provincial preparation for, and in response to, emergency events” as well as “reviewing and updating provincial and emergency management plans.”

After reading this, I am left wondering, “Where are the plans?”

Some may argue that disaster management is the responsibility of the municipalities, and they'd be partially correct — although in 2009, almost 13 years ago, the Nova Scotia minister responsible for EMO accepted the national strategy, meaning that the 10 classified critical infrastructure sectors (energy and utilities, finance, food, transportation, government, information and communication technology, health, water, safety, and manufacturing) must be regulated to ensure that “owners and operators have the expertise and information that governments need to develop comprehensive emergency management plans (and) that (the government of Nova Scotia has) information on risk and threats relevant to owners and operators in carrying out their risk management plans.”

In addition, the Halifax Regional Municipality's emergency plan was last revised in 2017, almost five years ago, meaning emergencies might not be properly managed if and when they arise. (HRM is home to 46 per cent of Nova Scotia's population.)

Overall, I am disappointed in the inaction of the government of Nova Scotia, which compromises its ability to tackle emergency management issues and disaster mitigation. Where are the plans that will save the lives of many, and the economy, in the next pandemic, flood or hurricane? What has EMO been spending taxpayers' money on in the last eight years? We need plans and we needed them yesterday — at the beginning of the pandemic. Nova Scotians deserve more than a rehashed list of critical infrastructures from the government of Canada.

It is now time for EMO to claim responsibility for critical infrastructure, develop an execution plan for implementing the National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure, identify owners of private critical infrastructure, outline how the province is protected in all 10 sectors, ensure that all critical infrastructure owned by the province has documented all-hazard risk assessments, and create plans to ensure their impact.

This summarizes the recommendations of the auditor general from six years ago.

Eric Bowdridge is a master of public administration student at Dalhousie University who is currently studying emergency management policy in Canada. He lives in Mount Uniacke.