Departmental Action Plan in response to audit findings and recommendations contained in
Chapter 6, “Emergency Management on Reserves” of the Fall 2013 report of the Auditor General of Canada
HEALTH CANADA & PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY OF CANADA – Updated May 23, 2014

Introduction:

The OAG conducted an audit of Emergency Management on First Nations Reserves which was included in the November 2013 Report of the Auditor General.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) was the primary focus of the audit. Health Canada (HC), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Public Safety Canada were also included.

This audit focussed on how the departments manage their support to emergency management activities on First Nations reserves. The health specific focus was primarily on the quality of and processes for reviewing and updating of regional and community level pandemic plans, as well as on the extent to which these plans are integrated into AANDC’s overall Emergency Management Plan.

Overall, the Audit Report conclusion is that HC has taken sufficient steps to adequately manage its emergency management support to First Nations living on reserve.

Of the 10 recommendations four related to HC: one implicated HC and PHAC; one was addressed to HC alone; and, two implicated HC and AANDC.

Auditor General’s Recommendation	Response	Actions and Timelines	Progress Update
Rec 6.73. Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada should further clarify their roles and responsibilities by updating and approving their emergency management and response plans and First Nations regional pandemic plans.	Accept The current Health Portfolio Emergency Response Plan (HPERP) was approved in 2010 and is presently being updated to reflect the new Health Canada/PHAC shared service approach to emergency management following Budget 2012. Particular attention will be paid to the roles and responsibilities of HC and PHAC through the review and revision of the Plan. HC Regions have First Nations and Inuit Health Branch regional pandemic plans. These plans outline the roles and responsibilities of partners during emergencies. These plans focus on the roles and responsibilities of local stakeholders responsible for responding to emergencies (e.g., provincial staff, FNIHB Regional office, community members). As per the recommendation, the regions will review their plans and update roles and responsibility sections as necessary.	HC and PHAC will articulate their roles and responsibilities when revising the HPERP. HC will work to clarify roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch Regional pandemic plans. Deliverables: D1. Complete the current review/update of the HPERP, articulating a roles and responsibilities section, as needed. March 31, 2014 (PHAC). COMPLETED D2. Develop and approve First Nations annex for the HPERP. August 30, 2014 (FNIHB). D3. Complete review/update of First Nations and Inuit Health Branch Regional pandemic plans section on roles and responsibilities; clarify roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders involved during an emergency. August 30, 2014 (FNIHB).	D1. HPERP Update: A comprehensive review and revision of the HPERP has been completed and the revised plan was approved by the Health Portfolio’s Partnership Executive Committee (PEC) in Dec 2013. Initial FNIHB/ PHAC planning meeting held March 20, 2014. A guidance document has been developed and is currently under review by the Inter-Professional Advisory and Program Support Directorate. D2. A meeting was held with PHAC March 20, 2014 to initiate development of the Annex by August 30, 2014. D3. FNIHB held a Table Top discussion-based exercise to clarify roles and responsibilities with AANDC, PHAC and FNIHB. The “After Action Report” is currently being finalized. A meeting with PHAC to finalize the document will be held before August 30, 2014. FNIHB Regions have included the revision of regional pandemic plans, which include the clarification of roles and responsibilities, in their work planning activities for FY 2014/15. FNIHB Regions are engaging relevant partners and stakeholders in discussions regarding roles and responsibilities.
Rec 6.80. Health Canada should continue to work with First Nations in the development, maintenance and testing of appropriate pandemic plans for all First Nations communities.	Accept HC engages communities when sharing pandemic best practices through various vehicles (e.g., hosting workshops, templates). Furthermore, in Alberta, HC engages communities on an annual basis with regards to pandemic planning when discussing their Seasonal Flu Plan.	HC will continue to work in consultation with First Nations to support communities in developing, maintaining and testing their pandemic plans. Deliverables: D1. The HC Communicable Disease Control Working Group (CDWG) will finalize and review current practices and documents (e.g., toolkits, templates, guides) designed to support communities in developing and testing their pandemic plans and work with partners to update as appropriate if/as required. March 31, 2014. COMPLETED D2. The Communicable Disease Control Working Group will share these support documents (e.g., toolkits, templates, guides) with the AANDC-HC-AFN All-hazards Emergency Management Working Group in order to facilitate the integration of pandemic planning into the all-hazards emergency management approach recommendation. March 31, 2014. D3. HC Communicable Disease Control Division along with the CDWG will review the 69 plans submitted through community health plans for appropriateness. March 31, 2014. COMPLETED D4. HC will develop and implement a process for review of pandemic plans for appropriateness. September 30, 2014. D5. HC will ensure that the Community –Based Reporting Template revisions scheduled for 2014-15 request that communities report on the status of their pandemic plans (e.g., developed, updated, tested). September 30, 2015.	D1. The FNIHB CDWG has updated and reviewed the following pandemic-related documents that support communities: 1- The main body of the Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan (CPIP) for the Health Sector to ensure that roles and responsibilities for pandemic planning and response are clear and related to First Nations communities. 2- The laboratory annex of the CPIP to ensure that the First Nations considerations are well integrated into F/P/T planning efforts. 3- The vaccine annex of the CPIP to ensure that the First Nations considerations are well integrated into F/P/T planning efforts. 4- The content of the Module 5 - Exercise Builder for First Nations, in order to provide a practical tool to on-reserve First Nations communities for the testing of pandemic plans. The FNIHB CDWG developed an assessment tool based on the main preparedness components of the CPIP to assess the appropriateness of community pandemic plans. FNIHB Regions have reviewed their regional pandemic plans, along with their pandemic templates. D2. At a January 31, 2014 meeting of HC and AANDC DGs the creation of an AANDC-HC-AFN All-Hazards Working Group was discussed. It was decided that in lieu of creating a separate Working Group, that AANDC would endeavour to include HC as a member of the Aboriginal Resilience Sub Working Group (ARSWG) under Canada’s National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. This working group includes AFN as a member. D3. The CDWG has completed the assessment of all the available plans submitted through community health plans for appropriateness by using the assessment tool comprised of 28 elements based on pandemic planning best-practices. Each plan was assessed twice to promote objectivity of the results and to validate the usefulness of the tool. A total of 42 plans were assessed. The 24 plans initially included from BC were not assessed due to the Tripartite Agreement and an additional 3 plans were not available in the database or via the regional offices. Fifty-five (55%) percent of the community pandemic plans assessed have a score over fifty percent (50%), which means that 14 out of 28 criteria were included in their pandemic plans. D4. By September 30, 2014, the Communicable Disease Emergencies national team will review and update the assessment tool developed to assess plans for appropriateness based on lessons learned from the assessment process, and share the revised document with FNIHB Regional Offices. D5. HC’s Community –Based Reporting Template currently requests that communities report on the status of their pandemic plans. The CBRT asks communities to confirm that they have a plan and asks the following questions Has the community tested the plan? Does the community have an All Hazard Emergency Plan? By September 30, 2015, the Community –Based Reporting Template will also ask the following: Is the community pandemic plan integrated into the All Hazard Emergency Plan? Is the plan updated yearly and tested at least once every 3 years?
Rec 6.87. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Health Canada, should continue to work with First Nations, in the development of integrated risk-based all-hazards community emergency management plans for all First Nations communities.	Accept HC currently offers support to communities by sharing best practices and distributing templates for emergency management plans and pandemic plans; by hosting workshops that allow communities to network and share their approaches with others responsible for emergency response and pandemic planning and offer them time to work on their respective plans in a supportive environment with their peers. An integrated risk based all-hazards community emergency plans would include as an Annex a community-level pandemic plan. As the plans contain personal information classified as a combination of Protected A and B, accessing these plans from First Nations communities may be difficult.	HC will continue to work with First Nations in the development of their integrated risk-based all-hazards community emergency management plans. Deliverables: D1. HC and AANDC will leverage the newly created AANDC-HC-AFN All-hazards working group (Rec 6.88) to review current practices and documents (e.g., templates) in the development of integrated risk-based all-hazards community emergency management plans. September 30, 2015 D2. The working group will share support documents with First Nations. September 30, 2015 D3. The working group will monitor, to the extent possible, the First Nations integrated all-hazards community emergency management plans. September 30, 2015 D4. Communicable Disease coordinators will continue to work closely with AANDC coordinators to support communities in planning and response activities and strive for communities to have an integrated risk based all-hazards community emergency plans that will include as an Annex a community-level pandemic plan. September 30, 2015	D1. Health Canada and AANDC will use the DG and ADM-level AANDC-Health Canada Collaboration Working Group as a forum to identify areas for collaboration and goals including in relation to community-level planning. A work plan with concrete deliverables will be jointly developed to ensure progress is made by September 30, 2015. Health Canada and AANDC will continue to support communities in the development of risk-based, all-hazards emergency management plans using a portion of AANDC’s Emergency Management Assistance Program (EMAP) funding envelope of $19.1 million in preparedness and non-structural mitigation funding. AANDC and Health Canada will continue to foster the integration of all-hazard and pandemic planning, capitalizing on successful initiatives in provinces such as Quebec, Saskatchewan and Alberta. D2. As per the rationale in D1, a new Working Group will not be struck. Instead Health Canada will use its Communicable Disease Working Group (CDWG) to share support documents with First Nations. Members of this working group work closely with their AANDC Regional colleagues as well as Regional First Nations groups. D3. As per the rationale in D1, a new Working Group will not be struck. Instead, the AANDC-Health Canada Collaboration Working Group will monitor, as much as possible, the integrated all-hazard community emergency management. . D4. FNIHB Regional Offices, in varying degrees, link with their AANDC counterparts to promote the integration of community-level pandemic influenza plans with all-hazard emergency preparedness and response plans, if the later are available. If integration of the two plans is not feasible at the moment, connections will be drawn between the two plans. FNIHB regional input: AB: FNIHB met with AANDC AB representatives with respect to developing consistent and collaborative approaches to support communities in pandemic planning and response. SK: The regional pandemic coordinator is working closely with its AANDC counterpart to adapt a 9-step EPR document into a First Nations specific health emergency annex. FNIHB and AANDC are in the process of developing a step by step emergency plan development process for First Nations communities. This will include all-hazards plan, health plan (annex) and documentation to guide a community through updating and exercising their plan as well as recommendations for training. Community involvement has been requested to provide input during this development stage. This process will be rolled out to communities through workshops hosted jointly by FNIHB and AANDC. We hope complete the workshops before winter. MB: AANDC is currently filling the Communications Advisor role. Will be partnering with him/her once position is filled. CDE Coordinator has been communicating with the PHAC EPR Regional Coordinator. ON: FNIHB will be meeting with AANDC in May, 2014 to discuss joint emergency management activities. QC: CDE Coordinator has engaged in discussions with AADNC counterparts to identify and prioritise communities that have either no EPR plans or CDE plans, as well as communities where those plans are not integrated, and work on a process to provide support (training, tools, workshops) aimed at increasing the percentage of completed, tested and integrated EPR/CDE plans. ATL: FNIHB formed an Emergency Management Working Group with AANDC, and finalized a workplan and terms of reference October 24, 2013. The activities include: identifying the status of plans (CDE and EPR) throughout the region and developing a strategy to support the integration of CDE and EPR plans, if the later are available.
Rec 6.88. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Health Canada, working with First Nations, should implement mechanisms to coordinate departmental activities for emergencies on reserves.	Accept HC is currently working with AANDC in identifying their respective roles and responsibilities for emergency management when it comes to First Nations. There have been meetings between HC and AANDC in terms of identifying how to collaboratively work together.	HC will work with AANDC to organize a senior level meeting to review collaborative activities on an annual basis. Establish an AANDC-HC-AFN All-Hazards Emergency Management Plan Working Group to better coordinate departmental activities to support integrated plans. Working Group to coordinate activities for All-Hazards Emergencies on reserves. Deliverables: D1. ADMs to meet annually. First Meeting March 31, 2014. D2. Working Group to meet bi-annually. First Meeting March 31, 2014. D3. Complete list of Working Group members and finalize Terms of Reference. Before First Meeting March 31, 2014. D4. Working Group will finalize a roles and responsibilities matrix. Before First Meeting December 30, 2014. D5. Working Group will provide recommendations to the DGs of AANDC-HC Joint Table. January 31, 2015.	D1. At a January 31, 2014 meeting of the HC and AANDC DGs, it was decided that the best mechanism to engage FNIHB and AANDC ADMs would be to add Emergency Management On-Reserve to the agenda of the existing AANDC/HC ADM Collaboration Working Group as a standing item. The DG- and ADM-level AANDC-Health Canada Collaboration Working Group has included 'Emergency management on-reserve' as a key priority for its workplan. Health Canada and AANDC also already participate in several federal interdepartmental committees and working groups organized by Public Safety Canada which facilitate the coordination of activities for emergencies on reserves. For recommendations D2-D5: AANDC will ask the Aboriginal Resilience Sub-Working Group (ARSWG) under Canada’s National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction if Health Canada can also become a member. The ARSWG is within the Resilient Communities Working Group, which is one of the four national working groups established under Canada’s Platform created to develop strategies to move ahead the United Nations’ disaster resilience agenda across Canada. In alignment with the four working groups under Canada’s Platform, the ARSWG serves as an open, inclusive and equitable forum to discuss risk reduction across many disciplines.

Auditor General’s Recommendation

Response

Actions and Timelines

Progress Update

Rec 6.73.

Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada should further clarify their roles and responsibilities by updating and approving their emergency management and response plans and First Nations regional pandemic plans.

Accept

The current Health Portfolio Emergency Response Plan (HPERP) was approved in 2010 and is presently being updated to reflect the new Health Canada/PHAC shared service approach to emergency management following Budget 2012. Particular attention will be paid to the roles and responsibilities of HC and PHAC through the review and revision of the Plan.

HC Regions have First Nations and Inuit Health Branch regional pandemic plans. These plans outline the roles and responsibilities of partners during emergencies. These plans focus on the roles and responsibilities of local stakeholders responsible for responding to emergencies (e.g., provincial staff, FNIHB Regional office, community members).

As per the recommendation, the regions will review their plans and update roles and responsibility sections as necessary.

HC and PHAC will articulate their roles and responsibilities when revising the HPERP.

HC will work to clarify roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch Regional pandemic plans.

Deliverables:

D1. Complete the current review/update of the HPERP, articulating a roles and responsibilities section, as needed. March 31, 2014 (PHAC).

COMPLETED

D2. Develop and approve First Nations annex for the HPERP. August 30, 2014 (FNIHB).

D3. Complete review/update of First Nations and Inuit Health Branch Regional pandemic plans section on roles and responsibilities; clarify roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders involved during an emergency. August 30, 2014 (FNIHB).

D1. HPERP Update: A comprehensive review and revision of the HPERP has been completed and the revised plan was approved by the Health Portfolio’s Partnership Executive Committee (PEC) in Dec 2013.

Initial FNIHB/ PHAC planning meeting held March 20, 2014. A guidance document has been developed and is currently under review by the Inter-Professional Advisory and Program Support Directorate.

D2. A meeting was held with PHAC March 20, 2014 to initiate development of the Annex by August 30, 2014.

D3. FNIHB held a Table Top discussion-based exercise to clarify roles and responsibilities with AANDC, PHAC and FNIHB. The “After Action Report” is currently being finalized. A meeting with PHAC to finalize the document will be held before August 30, 2014.

FNIHB Regions have included the revision of regional pandemic plans, which include the clarification of roles and responsibilities, in their work planning activities for FY 2014/15.

FNIHB Regions are engaging relevant partners and stakeholders in discussions regarding roles and responsibilities.

Rec 6.80.

Health Canada should continue to work with First Nations in the development, maintenance and testing of appropriate pandemic plans for all First Nations communities.

Accept

HC engages communities when sharing pandemic best practices through various vehicles (e.g., hosting workshops, templates). Furthermore, in Alberta, HC engages communities on an annual basis with regards to pandemic planning when discussing their Seasonal Flu Plan.

HC will continue to work in consultation with First Nations to support communities in developing, maintaining and testing their pandemic plans.

Deliverables:

D1. The HC Communicable Disease Control Working Group (CDWG) will finalize and review current practices and documents (e.g., toolkits, templates, guides) designed to support communities in developing and testing their pandemic plans and work with partners to update as appropriate if/as required. March 31, 2014. COMPLETED

D2. The Communicable Disease Control Working Group will share these support documents (e.g., toolkits, templates, guides) with the AANDC-HC-AFN All-hazards Emergency Management Working Group in order to facilitate the integration of pandemic planning into the all-hazards emergency management approach recommendation. March 31, 2014.

D3. HC Communicable Disease Control Division along with the CDWG will review the 69 plans submitted through community health plans for appropriateness. March 31, 2014. COMPLETED

D4. HC will develop and implement a process for review of pandemic plans for appropriateness. September 30, 2014.

D5. HC will ensure that the Community –Based Reporting Template revisions scheduled for 2014-15 request that communities report on the status of their pandemic plans (e.g., developed, updated, tested). September 30, 2015.

D1. The FNIHB CDWG has updated and reviewed the following pandemic-related documents that support communities:

1- The main body of the Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan (CPIP) for the Health Sector to ensure that roles and responsibilities for pandemic planning and response are clear and related to First Nations communities.

2- The laboratory annex of the CPIP to ensure that the First Nations considerations are well integrated into F/P/T planning efforts.

3- The vaccine annex of the CPIP to ensure that the First Nations considerations are well integrated into F/P/T planning efforts.

4- The content of the Module 5 - Exercise Builder for First Nations, in order to provide a practical tool to on-reserve First Nations communities for the testing of pandemic plans.

The FNIHB CDWG developed an assessment tool based on the main preparedness components of the CPIP to assess the appropriateness of community pandemic plans.

FNIHB Regions have reviewed their regional pandemic plans, along with their pandemic templates.

D2. At a January 31, 2014 meeting of HC and AANDC DGs the creation of an AANDC-HC-AFN All-Hazards Working Group was discussed. It was decided that in lieu of creating a separate Working Group, that AANDC would endeavour to include HC as a member of the Aboriginal Resilience Sub Working Group (ARSWG) under Canada’s National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. This working group includes AFN as a member.

D3. The CDWG has completed the assessment of all the available plans submitted through community health plans for appropriateness by using the assessment tool comprised of 28 elements based on pandemic planning best-practices. Each plan was assessed twice to promote objectivity of the results and to validate the usefulness of the tool. A total of 42 plans were assessed. The 24 plans initially included from BC were not assessed due to the Tripartite Agreement and an additional 3 plans were not available in the database or via the regional offices. Fifty-five (55%) percent of the community pandemic plans assessed have a score over fifty percent (50%), which means that 14 out of 28 criteria were included in their pandemic plans.

D4. By September 30, 2014, the Communicable Disease Emergencies national team will review and update the assessment tool developed to assess plans for appropriateness based on lessons learned from the assessment process, and share the revised document with FNIHB Regional Offices.

D5. HC’s Community –Based Reporting Template currently requests that communities report on the status of their pandemic plans. The CBRT asks communities to confirm that they have a plan and asks the following questions

Has the community tested the plan?
Does the community have an All Hazard Emergency Plan?

By September 30, 2015, the Community –Based Reporting Template will also ask the following:

Is the community pandemic plan integrated into the All Hazard Emergency Plan?
Is the plan updated yearly and tested at least once every 3 years?

Rec 6.87.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Health Canada, should continue to work with First Nations, in the development of integrated risk-based all-hazards community emergency management plans for all First Nations communities.

Accept

HC currently offers support to communities by sharing best practices and distributing templates for emergency management plans and pandemic plans; by hosting workshops that allow communities to network and share their approaches with others responsible for emergency response and pandemic planning and offer them time to work on their respective plans in a supportive environment with their peers. An integrated risk based all-hazards community emergency plans would include as an Annex a community-level pandemic plan.

As the plans contain personal information classified as a combination of Protected A and B, accessing these plans from First Nations communities may be difficult.

HC will continue to work with First Nations in the development of their integrated risk-based all-hazards community emergency management plans.

Deliverables:

D1. HC and AANDC will leverage the newly created AANDC-HC-AFN All-hazards working group (Rec 6.88) to review current practices and documents (e.g., templates) in the development of integrated risk-based all-hazards community emergency management plans. September 30, 2015

D2. The working group will share support documents with First Nations. September 30, 2015

D3. The working group will monitor, to the extent possible, the First Nations integrated all-hazards community emergency management plans. September 30, 2015

D4. Communicable Disease coordinators will continue to work closely with AANDC coordinators to support communities in planning and response activities and strive for communities to have an integrated risk based all-hazards community emergency plans that will include as an Annex a community-level pandemic plan. September 30, 2015

D1. Health Canada and AANDC will use the DG and ADM-level AANDC-Health Canada Collaboration Working Group as a forum to identify areas for collaboration and goals including in relation to community-level planning. A work plan with concrete deliverables will be jointly developed to ensure progress is made by September 30, 2015.

Health Canada and AANDC will continue to support communities in the development of risk-based, all-hazards emergency management plans using a portion of AANDC’s Emergency Management Assistance Program (EMAP) funding envelope of $19.1 million in preparedness and non-structural mitigation funding. AANDC and Health Canada will continue to foster the integration of all-hazard and pandemic planning, capitalizing on successful initiatives in provinces such as Quebec, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

D2. As per the rationale in D1, a new Working Group will not be struck. Instead Health Canada will use its Communicable Disease Working Group (CDWG) to share support documents with First Nations. Members of this working group work closely with their AANDC Regional colleagues as well as Regional First Nations groups.

D3. As per the rationale in D1, a new Working Group will not be struck. Instead, the AANDC-Health Canada Collaboration Working Group will monitor, as much as possible, the integrated all-hazard community emergency management. .

D4. FNIHB Regional Offices, in varying degrees, link with their AANDC counterparts to promote the integration of community-level pandemic influenza plans with all-hazard emergency preparedness and response plans, if the later are available. If integration of the two plans is not feasible at the moment, connections will be drawn between the two plans.

FNIHB regional input:

AB: FNIHB met with AANDC AB representatives with respect to developing consistent and collaborative approaches to support communities in pandemic planning and response.

SK: The regional pandemic coordinator is working closely with its AANDC counterpart to adapt a 9-step EPR document into a First Nations specific health emergency annex. FNIHB and AANDC are in the process of developing a step by step emergency plan development process for First Nations communities. This will include all-hazards plan, health plan (annex) and documentation to guide a community through updating and exercising their plan as well as recommendations for training. Community involvement has been requested to provide input during this development stage. This process will be rolled out to communities through workshops hosted jointly by FNIHB and AANDC. We hope complete the workshops before winter.

MB: AANDC is currently filling the Communications Advisor role. Will be partnering with him/her once position is filled. CDE Coordinator has been communicating with the PHAC EPR Regional Coordinator.

ON: FNIHB will be meeting with AANDC in May, 2014 to discuss joint emergency management activities.

QC: CDE Coordinator has engaged in discussions with AADNC counterparts to identify and prioritise communities that have either no EPR plans or CDE plans, as well as communities where those plans are not integrated, and work on a process to provide support (training, tools, workshops) aimed at increasing the percentage of completed, tested and integrated EPR/CDE plans.

ATL: FNIHB formed an Emergency Management Working Group with AANDC, and finalized a workplan and terms of reference October 24, 2013. The activities include: identifying the status of plans (CDE and EPR) throughout the region and developing a strategy to support the integration of CDE and EPR plans, if the later are available.

Rec 6.88.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Health Canada, working with First Nations, should implement mechanisms to coordinate departmental activities for emergencies on reserves.

Accept

HC is currently working with AANDC in identifying their respective roles and responsibilities for emergency management when it comes to First Nations. There have been meetings between HC and AANDC in terms of identifying how to collaboratively work together.

HC will work with AANDC to organize a senior level meeting to review collaborative activities on an annual basis.

Establish an AANDC-HC-AFN All-Hazards Emergency Management Plan Working Group to better coordinate departmental activities to support integrated plans.

Working Group to coordinate activities for All-Hazards Emergencies on reserves.

Deliverables:

D1. ADMs to meet annually. First Meeting March 31, 2014.

D2. Working Group to meet bi-annually. First Meeting March 31, 2014.

D3. Complete list of Working Group members and finalize Terms of Reference. Before First Meeting March 31, 2014.

D4. Working Group will finalize a roles and responsibilities matrix. Before First Meeting December 30, 2014.

D5. Working Group will provide recommendations to the DGs of AANDC-HC Joint Table. January 31, 2015.

D1. At a January 31, 2014 meeting of the HC and AANDC DGs, it was decided that the best mechanism to engage FNIHB and AANDC ADMs would be to add Emergency Management On-Reserve to the agenda of the existing AANDC/HC ADM Collaboration Working Group as a standing item.

The DG- and ADM-level AANDC-Health Canada Collaboration Working Group has included 'Emergency management on-reserve' as a key priority for its workplan.

Health Canada and AANDC also already participate in several federal interdepartmental committees and working groups organized by Public Safety Canada which facilitate the coordination of activities for emergencies on reserves.

For recommendations D2-D5:

AANDC will ask the Aboriginal Resilience Sub-Working Group (ARSWG) under Canada’s National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction if Health Canada can also become a member. The ARSWG is within the Resilient Communities Working Group, which is one of the four national working groups established under Canada’s Platform created to develop strategies to move ahead the United Nations’ disaster resilience agenda across Canada. In alignment with the four working groups under Canada’s Platform, the ARSWG serves as an open, inclusive and equitable forum to discuss risk reduction across many disciplines.