International Engagement
Public Safety Canada (PS) engages with key bilateral and multilateral partners. Key partners include the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (UK), including through the Five Eyes (FVEY) security partnership (along with Australia and New Zealand). The Department also engages with other bilateral partners, including formal dialogue relationships with Israel, France and Mexico. In addition, PS leads portfolio engagement with the G7, United Nations, and the Organization of American States. Separately, PS co-manages Canada’s international police peacekeeping program along with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
PS portfolio agencies each have a broad array of international engagements and partnerships based on their enabling legislation and functions. Portfolio agency international engagement is described in the agencies’ respective transition materials.
Relevant Platform Commitments
Platform commitments related to International Engagement address numerous policy issues relevant to Public Safety and are also listed for each Issue Note in this Binder.
- Commitments with a focus on international engagement:
- Expand engagement on human rights and international trade, and to defend Canada against foreign threats.
- Facilitate safe passage and resettlement of Afghan citizens and increase the number of eligible refugees from 20,000 to 40,000.
- Launch a new Asia-Pacific strategy to deepen diplomatic, economic, and defence partnerships in the region.
- Work with G7, NATO, and likeminded partners on collective responses to arbitrary detention, economic coercion, cyber threats, foreign interference in democratic processes, and violations of human rights.
- Increase resources available to national security agencies to counter foreign interference and to the RCMP to protect Canadians from surveillance, harassment, and intimidation by foreign actors.
- Lead international efforts to establish a global coalition to respond to wildfires and other climate emergencies.
Further Information
United States
PS leads and supports cooperation with the U.S. on issues of national security, emergency management, community safety and border management. Your direct U.S. counterpart is the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Attorney General Merrick Garland is your counterpart for some law enforcement and national security issues involving U.S. Department of Justice agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Direct cooperation at all levels complements multilateral cooperation with the U.S., especially within the FVEY and G7.
The current horizontal Canada-U.S. cooperation framework is the U.S.-Canada Roadmap for a Renewed Partnership, launched leaders in February 2021. PS and its portfolio agencies were designated as a lead or co-lead on the following items:
- Coordinating border reopening;
- Strengthening the Joint Action Plan on Opioids;
- Implementing more inclusive approaches to community safety;
- Countering terrorism and violent extremism;
- Re-establishing the Cross-Border Crime Forum;
- Creating a firearms cross-border task force; and,
- Cooperating on cybersecurity, foreign interference and disinformation.
Separately, PS is the lead department for preclearance, the arrangement between Canada and the U.S. allowing for the pre-screening of goods and travelers bound for the U.S. or Canada. Canada and the U.S. ratified a new preclearance treaty in 2019, the Agreement on Land, Rail, Marine, and Air Transport Preclearance (LRMA), which expands the scope of preclearance operations to all modes of transport and permits the preclearance of commercial goods. The Preclearance Act, 2016 supports LRMA implementation.
Senior officials from PS and the portfolio agencies chair various bilateral fora. For example:
- PS co-leads the Executive Coordination Committee (ECC) with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The ECC was established in 2019 to share information on cross-border initiatives and explore opportunities for further collaboration. Canada hosted the last meeting virtually, bringing together more than 150 representatives from 28 departments and agencies in both countries.
- PS co-chairs the Emergency Management Consultative Group (EMCG) along with Global Affairs Canada, DHS and the U.S. State Department, which serves to foster collaboration on emergency management issues.
- PS Assistant Deputy Ministers co-chair targeted mechanisms with U.S. counterparts on preclearance (Preclearance Consultative Group) and the opioid overdose crisis (Steering Committee for the Canada-U.S. Joint Action Plan on Opioids).
These are in addition to regular bilateral engagements on issues related to emergency management (with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency); national security (with the FBI-National Targeting Center); cybersecurity (with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency); and Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism/Domestic Violent Extremism (with DHS’ Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships and others).
United Kingdom
The UK is Canada’s closest ally on security issues after the U.S. PS engages the UK on issues related to national security, anti-terrorism, online harms, cyber security and law enforcement. As members of the FVEY and NATO, Canada and the U.K. have a strong security and defence relationship which includes close military, law enforcement and intelligence cooperation.
Other Bilateral Partners
The Department also engages with other countries to advance its mandate. Those include the other FVEY partners, Australia and New Zealand, as well as through regular dialogue meetings between senior officials with Mexico, France, and Israel through formal memoranda of understanding signed with ministers of those countries.
Five Eyes
Originally an intelligence alliance between Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and the UK for intelligence matters, the term Five Eyes has gradually been expanded to cover other security-related cooperation between these five countries. Both the Department and portfolio agencies are involved in several FVEY fora where allies coordinate on critical infrastructure, migration, border management, and cyber security. Since 2013, a ministerial-level forum – the Five Country Ministerial (FCM) – convenes annually. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has also attended the FCM when migration issues were on the agenda. The last FCM was hosted virtually by New Zealand in June 2020.
Group of Seven (G7)
The G7 is an informal grouping of seven of the world’s most advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the U.S. (European Union representatives also participate). Its members explicitly share values of pluralism and representative government. The presidency of the G7 rotates yearly between members. Your UK counterpart, Home Secretary Priti Patel, hosted a G7 Interior and Security Ministers Meeting in September 2021 with an ambitious agenda including violent extremism, encryption, anti-corruption, irregular migration, ransomware, online child sexual exploitation, and gender-based violence. It is not yet confirmed whether there will be an Interior Ministers Meeting in Germany, which takes over the G7 presidency in 2022.
United Nations
PS engages with various UN bodies, including the General Assembly, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. PS also supports Canada’s delegation to the UN Open Ended Working Group in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security.
PS works with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) to advance the domestic implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030), which is the roadmap for how Member States can make communities safer and more resilient to disasters, as well as reduce disaster risk and losses. The Sendai Framework is closely tied to other 2030 UN Agenda agreements, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals.
With the RCMP and GAC, PS co-manages the International Police Peacekeeping and Peace Operations Program, which deploys Canadian police to peace operations around the world, including UN missions in Haiti, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Program receives $46.9 million per annum in ongoing funding, disbursed by the RCMP and GAC. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, 65 Canadian police are currently deployed overseas. The program’s largest deployment is in Ukraine. In March 2021,the Program was renewed for a further five years.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
At the NATO Summit in June 2021, it was announced that Canada will seek to establish a NATO Centre of Excellence on Climate and Security (CASCOE). At the request of NATO leadership, the goal of CASCOE is to become a hub of expertise on the effects of climate change on a broad range of security and defence issues. The CASCOE will be established at a location in Canada (TBD) by April 2023 at the earliest.
Other Key Multilateral Organizations and Initiatives
PS supports Canada’s participation in other multilateral initiatives, including the North American Leaders’ Summit, the North American Drug Dialogue, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC, on Disaster Risk Reduction), the Financial Action Task Force, and the Organization of American States. PS is also the Canadian coordinating authority for the International Cospas-Sarsat Programme Agreement (Satellite based Search and Rescue). In addition, through an NRCan-led initiative, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre has resource-sharing agreements with the U.S., Australia, Mexico, and other partners which facilitate international support on wildfire response.
- Date modified: