Federal response centre staff stretched

Demand has surged due to fires, floods, COVID-19, protests

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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 past 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.