Canada's embarks on ambitious critical infrastructure protection plan

The Canadian government will soon roll out a national strategy to protect critical infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines from terrorist attacks and other threats. The plan has been in the works for almost three years, and it was launched after an al-Qaeda affiliate in the Arabian Peninsula threatened in February to attack the petroleum interests of countries, such as Canada, that supply oil and gas to the United States. The national strategy would reach far beyond the oil and gas sector to cover everything from power plants and telecommunications networks to banking systems, hospitals, transport routes, food-distribution networks, manufacturing facilities, and the water supply.

The Ottawa Citizen’s Andrew Mayeda reports that there is a growing consensus in Canada that there is a need for both critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity strategies. The strategies would employ an all-hazards approach which would develop a common standard for analyzing the risk of all kinds of emergencies, from terrorist attacks to natural disasters or hacker attacks on computer networks. Support could be provided by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre, an around-the-clock operation headquartered at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

In rolling out a national strategy, Canada is following in the footsteps of the United States, which has co-ordinated its efforts under DHS. This month, the U.S. department introduced specific plans for seventeen key sectors. Similarly, Canada has identified ten critical sectors that require protection, such as energy and utilities, as well as communications and information technology.

The Canadian critical infrastructure plans may run into resistance by industry and questions about regulatory powers from various provincial and statutory bodies. In the case of oil and gas pipelines, for example, the energy industry has “primary responsibility” for protecting infrastructure, according to a government briefing. The sector already has “robust security and emergency management protocols in place.” What is more, the National Energy Board, a federal agency, already has the legislative authority to order companies to bulk up pipeline security.