Missile alert setup being ‘finalized’

False warning in Hawaii sparks action

Almost a year after a false ballistic missile alert terrified Hawaii, Canada is “finalizing” a protocol for notifying the public of a genuine airborne threat of mass destruction.

Internal federal government memos and emails obtained through the Access to Information Act show the early-morning Jan. 13 alert that sent people in the tropical U.S. state scurrying for cover soon had Canadian officials scrambling to figure out their own system for informing the public of an incoming missile.

The mistaken Saturday alert from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency urging people to seek immediate shelter was rescinded 38 minutes later, prompting numerous questions.

In Canada, federal officials had received at least half a dozen media inquiries by midday Monday asking what the government would do in the event of a nuclear missile attack.

Officials scheduled a teleconference to “clarify roles and responsibilities” between Public Safety Canada and National Defence and co-ordinate messaging across both departments, the newly released notes say.

Public Safety briefing materials dated Jan. 15 say it was presumed that any early-warning system with respect to a missile launch would rest with Defence and the Canadian Forces, but “this assumption would need to be verified.”

The federal Government Operations Centre, a central emergency-management hub, was “currently engaged in developing a notification protocol” with Defence related to a missile attack, the notes add.

The protocol would allow information to be shared with federal agencies as well as provincial and territorial emergency management organizations.

But there was a snag. Canada’s National Public Alerting System — known as Alert Ready — did not specifically provide for the threat of a potential missile strike, instead focusing on domestic calamities such as floods, fires, severe weather, chemical spills and terrorist incidents.

Alerts have been distributed via television and radio broadcasts and, as of recently, through messages to mobile phones.

The only federal department connected to the alerting system was Environment and Climate Change Canada, to issue severe-weather alerts.

“ECCC has no mandate to issue an alert related to a potential missile strike,” the documents say.

Federal agencies are “finalizing details” of the Missile Launch Notification Protocol said Karine Martel, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Canada.

“The details of the protocol will be implemented in due course.”