Canadian Red Cross reports gaps in disaster response capacity
OTTAWA-(August 20, 2008) In the next decade, Canada can expect to suffer more severe storms, more flooding and a possible influenza pandemic. But according to the latest research by the Canadian Red Cross there are gaps in Canada’s disaster safety net.
Plugging those gaps is the subject of this week’s meeting of The Advisory Group for the Project to Enhance the Role of the Voluntary Sector in Health Emergencies, made possible by a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The group is gathered in Ottawa to discuss actions to help mobilize the voluntary sector response.
“We are facing a new scale of disasters and they pose greater risk to Canadians than anything we have seen,” explains Don Shropshire, National Director of Disaster Management at the Canadian Red Cross. ”When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the American Red Cross launched the largest volunteer action since World War II so that gave us an idea of the potential scale of such an event and currently our response capacity isn’t there. “
The first big gap is the security of high risk populations. Results of a Canadian Red Cross research project indicated that millions of vulnerable Canadians depend on the services of the voluntary sector for their daily survival but those services are not disaster proof. Further analysis showed that the vast majority of voluntary sector organizations do not have plans in place detailing how they will maintain services or respond when a disaster strikes.
The second big gap is volunteer recruitment and resource mobilization. So right now, there is a power shortage in Canadian disaster response capacity. And again the voluntary sector is part of the solution. “We desperately need to bring the untapped strengths of the voluntary sector into Canada’s overall response capacity if we are going to be able to cope with a health emergency or large scale disaster,” Shropshire concludes. The voluntary sector, which has greater economic clout than manufacturing, mining and hospitality has an important but currently underutilized place in Canada’s disaster response.
More than 161,000 non-profit and voluntary organizations work year-round providing shelter, teaching people to read, distributing food to families, supporting people with disabilities, visiting frail elderly, defending human rights, protecting the environment, and bringing people together to celebrate their culture. Vulnerable Canadians rely on these organizations for a range of essential services and will be depending upon them even more in a health emergency or disaster. Many organizations have large facilities, crisis counselors, first-aid trained workers, blankets, mats, generators, vehicles, child care equipment, and communications systems. “The tools being released today will play a critical role in helping organizations develop their plan to continue to serve the people who need them most and to mobilize these rich assets to build community resiliency,” says Paula Speevak Sladowski, of Carleton University’s Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development.
Traditionally, the voluntary sector handled the every day emergencies for vulnerable populations while the emergency response organizations including governments, worked on episodic, larger scale disaster response but Shropshire says times have changed. “It’s vital to Canada’s public health to have these organizations actively contributing. We can’t afford to have divided missions so everybody has to be involved in disaster preparedness and response. The voluntary sector needs to sit at the emergency response table with governments and emergency response organizations,” he says.
Background: Voluntary Sector Project for Health Emergencies»
Related Resources:
- Voluntary Sector Framework for Health Emergencies (PDF, 1mb),
Canadian Red Cross - Maintaining the Passion: Sustaining the Emergency Response (PDF, 1mb),
Canadian Red Cross - Integrating Emergency Management and High Risk Populations: Survey Report and Action Recommendations (PDF, 1mb),
Department of Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies, Brandon University,
Canadian Red Cross - Working Paper Series: From Response to Resilience
Public Health Agency of Canada
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For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Canadian Red Cross Media Line (613) 740-1994
