Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Canada’s Public Safety Minister Vic Toews reached several agreements yesterday, including a first-ever plan to establish a comprehensive cross-border approach to critical infrastructure resilience.
The plan is based on three objectives: building partnerships; improved information sharing; and risk management.
The plan “promotes an integrated approach to critical infrastructure protection and resilience by enhancing coordination of activities and facilitating continuous dialogue among cross-border stakeholders,” says the preamble to the nine-page plan, Canada-United States Action Plan for Critical Infrastructure. The plan will “also allow Canada and the United States to more effectively address a range of cross-border critical infrastructure issues and work together to share information [and] best practices, identify interdependencies, and conduct joint exercises,” it says.
“Today’s announcements reflect our commitment to cooperative action to protect and safeguard both nations’ vital assets, networks and systems, as well as the shared responsibility to protect all citizens from cross-border crime and terrorism,” Napolitano said in a statement.
One action item in the plan is to establish a “virtual” cell between the two countries to develop and share risk management tools and information on critical infrastructure. Another calls for both countries to “develop compatible mechanisms and protocols to protect and share sensitive critical infrastructure information.”
The plan also includes target timelines for achieving the called-for action items. Target dates stretch between 2010 and 2013.
In addition to the action plan, Napolitano and Toews also announced two joint initiatives in the areas of child sexual exploitation and trafficking, and cross border currency seizure information sharing. An assessment between the two countries is also due out this summer that addresses drug trafficking and illegal immigration, the illicit movement of prohibited or controlled goods, agricultural hazards, and the spread of infectious diseases.