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OTTAWA — Budget and staff challenges have left overworked employees exhausted and sapped morale at the federal nerve centre for managing forest fires and other national emergencies, an internal memo reveals.
The Public Safety Canada document also says the Government Operations Centre lacks both the capacity to fully modernize and the money for new digital tools.
The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain the May memo, prepared for the department’s deputy minister as the operations centre braced for the heavy demands of another wildfire season.
The last four years have been the worst continuous crisis period for emergency management short of wartime due to fires, floods, COVID-19 and other events including the “Freedom Convoy” and the appearance of Chinese high-altitude balloons, the memo says.
The operations centre identifies high-risk events and provides round-the-clock co-ordination and support to key national players for national emergencies. It has 112 full time-equivalent positions and a 2024-25 budget of more than $11 million.
Before COVID-19, the centre would received five to 10 formal requests for federal assistance a year. The centre co-ordinated 24 requests for assistance in 2022-23 and 20 in 2023-24.
The record-setting wildfire season of 2023 prompted activation of the operations centre’s event team for seven months, leading to considerable overtime for employees and redirection of resources from emergency management planning and exercises, the memo says.
In addition, 100 per cent of operations centre staff rotated through teams for “sustained and repeated periods, which resulted in significant staff exhaustion and lowered morale in some areas by the fall of 2023. Staff have indicated this is not sustainable and greater turnover may be likely.”
The memo also says the operations centre has taken on a number of other high-priority files, including renewing and exercising the missile warning protocol and supporting the national public alerting capability.
Meanwhile, deficit reduction decisions made more than a decade ago “eliminated significant preparedness capacity” for emergency management planning, exercises and professionalization.
The operations centre “has been operating in a structural financial deficit for nearly a decade.”
An analysis of Canada’s Five Eyes intelligence partners “demonstrates clearly” that Ottawa has invested significantly less in emergency management response than the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, the memo adds.
Despite additional funding from the 2022 federal budget, the operations centre “continues to risk manage its capacity and budget.”
An average of $1.2 million in overtime has been consistent over the last few years, and is “placing an unsustainable demand on employees,” the memo says.
It warned that without “surge support” from other agencies for the 2024 season, there was a risk the operations centre “may lose some of its most experienced employees due to burnout and fatigue.”
In addition, delays in moving the centre to a new facility — originally set for August 2022, now slated for next year — mean employees continue to toil “in a building that does not meet workplace standards.”
In response to questions, Public Safety acknowledged the growing demands on the operation centre and said the government is taking steps to ensure the centre has the capacity to respond to future challenges.
After reviewing the memo, the Union of Safety and Justice Employees said it can confirm that the increasing demands on the centre “far exceed” the financial and human resources allocated to fulfil its mandate.
Despite efforts to stabilize personnel levels through surge funding requests, “staffing levels remain quite stressed, turnover continues to be very high and morale fluctuates considerably,” the union said.
It urged the government to inject needed money into the operations centre in the coming federal budget to stabilize operations “and ensure these extremely dedicated federal public service employees are able to work in a sustainable environment with appropriate capacity.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2024.
Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press