Transforming federal emergency management: a new agenda for Canada

Canada’s emergency governance model no longer aligns with a risk environment shaped by accelerating climate change and increasingly complex multi-hazard events. Recent federal/provincial/territorial strategies acknowledge these growing pressures but have not materially reoriented federal leadership toward anticipatory risk governance, resulting in persistent gaps across jurisdictions. Using a conceptual analysis grounded in risk governance, resilience, and comparative federalism, this paper identifies four structural limitations that constrain national readiness: (1) fragmented situational awareness, (2) interoperability deficits, (3) a reactive federal posture, and (4) incomplete Indigenous integration. We propose a reshaped federal leadership model that operates continuously across the disaster cycle. The framework provides a concrete federal pathway linking governance theory to implementable design choices capable of strengthening national readiness and resilience in an era of compounding risk.