Approach to Devel­op a Col­lab­o­ra­tive Gov­er­nance for Risk Assess­ment Gov­er­nance of Crit­i­cal Infrastructures

This action-research project ini­ti­at­ed by Oura­nos aims to devel­op a strat­e­gy for the glob­al risk assess­ment of essen­tial sys­tems in two Québec munic­i­pal­i­ties in the con­text of cli­mate change. Cité-ID is sup­port­ing a col­lab­o­ra­tive gov­er­nance process with­in this project. Fund­ed by the Min­istry of Pub­lic Secu­ri­ty and the Fonds Vert, the effort is being under­tak­en in part­ner­ship with experts in risk man­age­ment from Poly­tech­nique Mon­tréal. An essen­tial sys­tem is a sys­tem that assures the pro­duc­tion or pro­vi­sion of ser­vices or resources need­ed for com­mu­ni­ty life and func­tion­ing. Munic­i­pal­i­ties are extreme­ly depen­dent on ser­vices and resources pro­vid­ed by essen­tial sys­tems. Cli­mate change increas­es the fre­quen­cy and impact of nat­ur­al haz­ards, leav­ing essen­tial sys­tems more prone to dis­tur­bances. Some essen­tial sys­tem equip­ment was con­ceived based on his­toric cli­mate data that are now ques­tioned or revised. The abil­i­ty of essen­tial sys­tems to func­tion in these new cli­mat­ic con­di­tions is com­pro­mised. There is thus a cru­cial need to assess the risks asso­ci­at­ed with these sys­tems and the risk man­age­ment tools avail­able, while also con­sid­er­ing the vari­able juris­dic­tion over essen­tial sys­tems and assur­ing shared risk man­age­ment among the con­sid­er­able num­ber of organ­i­sa­tions that must coor­di­nate their efforts to man­age an event that could pro­duce cas­cad­ing failures.

By pro­vid­ing a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties in essen­tial sys­tems in less pop­u­lat­ed areas, the project will help to reduce these vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. It will equip the Min­istry of Pub­lic Secu­ri­ty, along with its region­al bureaus and Québec munic­i­pal­i­ties, to ini­ti­ate sim­i­lar efforts. It will also advance sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge around col­lab­o­ra­tive gov­er­nance and the inter­de­pen­dence of essen­tial systems.