Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien announced the development of this agency on February 5, 2001. It took over the functions of the former Emergency Preparedness Canada, and its role was to protect Canada’s critical infrastructures from disruption or complete failure in order to assure the health, safety, and economic well-being of Canadians. A prolonged disruption or failure in one utility contributing to the infrastructure could produce cascading disruptions or failures across a number of other infrastructures, with major economic and social repercussions for Canadians.

In December 2003, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said that OCIPEP would be integrated into a new department known as Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada (known as PSEPC). The first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness appointed by the Prime Minister was Anne McLellan.

See Also: Critical Infrastructures; Critical Networks; Cyber Apocalypse.