Mission and Guiding Principles
Mission
Exemplary Environmental Emergency Management through Leadership, Organization, Team Work, and Shared Responsibility.
Guiding Principles
The fundamental principles that guide the Ministry during an environmental emergency consist of the following:
- the polluter-pay-principle - industrial and commercial sectors that pose a risk to the environment and public safety must internalize the risk and redress impacts;
- emergency management is a shared responsibility - stakeholders (businesses, governments) whose interests are directly affected by a spill (or threat) and have a capability to respond have a shared role in emergency preparedness and response;
- the level of emergency preparedness is commensurate with known risk – the level of emergency preparedness by industry and government should be commensurate with the degree of threat for which it either creates or is mandated to handle. Risk needs to be assessed and managed. These risks include physical risks (people, property & environment) and institutional risks (political, financial, legal);
- emergency planning and response is in accordance with accepted protocols and standards – emergency planning, preparedness and response are based on proven and universally accepted standards and protocols;
- response strives for a net environmental benefit – most spills degrade the environment. Response actions can also cause environmental impacts. The objective of response is to seek a net environmental benefit whereby the overall response outcome is beneficial to people, property and the environment. Human health and safety is not to be compromised;
- response decisions are based on fairness and transparency – emergency response is not at “any cost”, nor can unreasonable impacts be transferred from one area (stakeholders) to another. Reasonable costs and inclusiveness in response decisions is a primary principle of effective incident management;
- the primary role of a government is to demonstrate and apply governance – it is government that has the accountability and responsibility to determine priorities for the public, infrastructure, business and environmental protection and to establish and monitor response performance, not the spiller.
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