Too Critical to Fail: How Canada Manages Threats to Critical Infrastructure
In the summer of 2013, just as a small town in Quebec was decimated due to a train derailment, heavy rainfall prompted thirty Alberta communities to declare a state of emergency. Whereas a SWAT team surrounded train conductor Thomas Harding and brought him to court where he was charged with the deaths of forty-seven in Quebec, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi emerged from the Alberta crisis as a folk hero. As the Lac-Mégantic train derailment and the flood in Alberta demonstrate, political, economic, legal, and cultural climates influence the way disasters are received and managed. In Too Critical to Fail, Kevin Quigley, Ben Bisset, and Bryan Mills identify the social context that shapes the Canadian government’s ability to prepare for and respond to emergencies. Using original research on natural disasters, pandemics, industrial failures, cyber-attacks, and terrorist threats, the authors evaluate the risk regulation regimes that monitor, interpret, and respond to failures in Canada’s critical infrastructure to limit their possibilities and consequences. More broadly, this book identifies key vulnerabilities and regulatory challenges for both the government and the private sector in mitigating threats to safety and security. Too Critical to Fail applies an investigative lens to the multiple and competing risks that the government balances to secure assets that enable modern civilization. Raising questions about Canadians’ ability to protect critical infrastructure and respond to threats, this book challenges the biases that determine who is held to account when the system fails.
1126390747
Too Critical to Fail: How Canada Manages Threats to Critical Infrastructure
In the summer of 2013, just as a small town in Quebec was decimated due to a train derailment, heavy rainfall prompted thirty Alberta communities to declare a state of emergency. Whereas a SWAT team surrounded train conductor Thomas Harding and brought him to court where he was charged with the deaths of forty-seven in Quebec, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi emerged from the Alberta crisis as a folk hero. As the Lac-Mégantic train derailment and the flood in Alberta demonstrate, political, economic, legal, and cultural climates influence the way disasters are received and managed. In Too Critical to Fail, Kevin Quigley, Ben Bisset, and Bryan Mills identify the social context that shapes the Canadian government’s ability to prepare for and respond to emergencies. Using original research on natural disasters, pandemics, industrial failures, cyber-attacks, and terrorist threats, the authors evaluate the risk regulation regimes that monitor, interpret, and respond to failures in Canada’s critical infrastructure to limit their possibilities and consequences. More broadly, this book identifies key vulnerabilities and regulatory challenges for both the government and the private sector in mitigating threats to safety and security. Too Critical to Fail applies an investigative lens to the multiple and competing risks that the government balances to secure assets that enable modern civilization. Raising questions about Canadians’ ability to protect critical infrastructure and respond to threats, this book challenges the biases that determine who is held to account when the system fails.
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Too Critical to Fail: How Canada Manages Threats to Critical Infrastructure

Too Critical to Fail: How Canada Manages Threats to Critical Infrastructure

Too Critical to Fail: How Canada Manages Threats to Critical Infrastructure

Too Critical to Fail: How Canada Manages Threats to Critical Infrastructure

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Overview

In the summer of 2013, just as a small town in Quebec was decimated due to a train derailment, heavy rainfall prompted thirty Alberta communities to declare a state of emergency. Whereas a SWAT team surrounded train conductor Thomas Harding and brought him to court where he was charged with the deaths of forty-seven in Quebec, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi emerged from the Alberta crisis as a folk hero. As the Lac-Mégantic train derailment and the flood in Alberta demonstrate, political, economic, legal, and cultural climates influence the way disasters are received and managed. In Too Critical to Fail, Kevin Quigley, Ben Bisset, and Bryan Mills identify the social context that shapes the Canadian government’s ability to prepare for and respond to emergencies. Using original research on natural disasters, pandemics, industrial failures, cyber-attacks, and terrorist threats, the authors evaluate the risk regulation regimes that monitor, interpret, and respond to failures in Canada’s critical infrastructure to limit their possibilities and consequences. More broadly, this book identifies key vulnerabilities and regulatory challenges for both the government and the private sector in mitigating threats to safety and security. Too Critical to Fail applies an investigative lens to the multiple and competing risks that the government balances to secure assets that enable modern civilization. Raising questions about Canadians’ ability to protect critical infrastructure and respond to threats, this book challenges the biases that determine who is held to account when the system fails.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780773551619
Publisher: McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date: 11/30/2017
Pages: 416
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kevin Quigley is professor of public administration and scholarly director of the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance at Dalhousie University. Ben Bisset is a public policy and government administration professional, as well as a research analyst at the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance and the Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative at Dalhousie University. Bryan Mills is a practising lawyer and research analyst at the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance at Dalhousie University.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Abbreviations xvii

1 Introduction 3

Part 1 Situating The Study 25

2 Risk Governance and Critical Infrastructure: Control and Adaptive Capacity 27

3 Government and Critical Infrastructure Protection: Relevant but Not Responsible 56

Part 2 Regime Content - Case Studies 81

4 Transportation Sector 83

5 Chemicals Sector 108

Part 3 Regime Context - Pressures And Explanations 133

6 The Market Failure Hypothesis: Markets on the Margins 135

7 The Opinion-Responsive Hypothesis: Fascination and Aversion 160

8 "Cyber Gurus": How Professionals Frame Cyber Threats with Calvin Burns Kristen Stallard 186

9 Pandemic Pandemonium: Canada's Volatile Response to Hini with Colin Macdonald John Quigley 205

10 The Interest Group Hypothesis: The Concentration of Power 225

11 Values and Institutions: Organizational Culture and Risk Response 245

12 Conclusion 264

Appendices 295

1 Methods 297

2 Interview Participants 302

3 Media Events Studied 306

4 Significant Privatizations in Canada, 1975-2011 313

Notes 317

References 327

Index 381

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