The Ben Mulroney Show - Ontario has a new emergency preparedness plan and a volunteer corps too!

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

GUEST: MINISTER JILL DUNLOP / Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response of Ontario If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ���⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hey, we're going to start this hour with a game show. Welcome to the show. It's the Finch LRT Alert. I'm your host, Guy Smiley. Welcome to the program, and please welcome our contestant for the day. Mike Drolle. How are you, Mike?

So excited to be here. Yes, indeed. Well, the game is very simple. I ask one question. Is the. Finch LRT, delayed yes or no? Yes, it is again

today. You are correct, sir. What do I win? You win a month of free riding on the LRT. And had you gotten it wrong, you'd get two months. Oh, no, I have to...

Yeah, so it's delayed again today? Yes, it is delayed again. They're running buses. It's sad. Oh, boy. Okay, well, this doesn't constitute an emergency. Although the LRT is clearly not demonstrated preparedness.

Here joining us now for the next couple of segments. We're very pleased to have Minister Jill Dunlop, the Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response of Ontario. Welcome to the show. Thank you for being here in person. Hey, thanks for having me, Ben. Great to be here. What constitutes an emergency?

Well, I lead that to the municipalities to decide what is an emergency. But the province is there to support municipalities across the province. I mean, I listen, in the past, couple of years, there have been things that have popped up that I thought I'd never see. I'd never thought I'd see cars floating down the road last summer. And I'd never thought I'd see a city like Toronto unable to remove snow.

Are those emergencies? Those are types of emergencies. So let me give you a great example of emergency. The first one that happened to me, I was 10 days on the job. And the ice storm hit not only my riding, but several riding. So I jumped in with both feet, definitely drinking from the fire hose immediately, worked with those municipalities and some of my ministerial colleagues to ensure that people were protected. So it was definitely, there was a big emergency across the province.

See, I know exactly what you're talking about because during the first season of Canadian Idol, there's a guy who was singing and he sang so hard. He's stomping his foot that he made the CD player skip. And I'm sitting there on stage watching him. And I honestly thought to myself, somebody should really do something. Yeah. And then I remembered I was the host and it was kind of my job. So I leapt into action.

So as I said, I know exactly what you're talking. Ice storm, skipping CD, same same. You never know what's going to happen. Yeah. So tell me what's going on because the fact that Ontario has reintroduced the Emergency Management Modernization Act. I didn't know that it, how long has it been since it's been updated? 15 years. So quite a while.

So a time for things to change, be modernized. And this is now a full standing ministry of its own. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. So, you know, kudos to Premier Ford that, you know, looking at the severity of the disasters that are happening and the frequency that there was a need for this ministry. Right. So was it, was it, was the desire to update it and modernize it? Was it due to, you know, the simple passage of time and the modernization of technology?

Or was it, yeah, these things are getting worse? Yeah. I mean, lots of different factors. And actually the modernization, the act, what it does is enshrines this ministry as being the one-window approach for municipalities. So if there's a disaster to happen in an area, rather than having to reach out to several different ministries, everything will come through our provincial emergency operation center,

and we will then coordinate at a provincial level. So it's really working very closely with municipalities. And that's new too, right? You've got this forward operating base. We do. We just had a great announcement recently about a grand break, breaking for a new headquarters. Yeah.

So that's, you know, the first step will be a couple years down the road. What's it going to look like? It's going to be fantastic, new modernized building. right now we're at a shared building with lots of other provincial entities, but now we'll have our own building, but it will also be home to Ontario Corps. So that was one of the other pieces that's exciting about the Emergency Management Modernization Act piece is, you know, enshrining Ontario Corps as part of the emergency response in the province. So it would be a new headquarters for them as well. Well, like this should, this should make people of all stripes,

political stripes, quite proud, like this, the Ontario Corps, a coordinated network of skilled volunteers and NGOs that you can deploy anywhere within hours. Absolutely. And it's super exciting. And, you know, it's something really, like, that brings together Ontario. It's like the team Ontario spirit to ensure that people are protected. And people want to help during an emergency.

You know, once they know when their family and their household safe, they want to reach out and help their neighbors too. So is this up and running now, the Ontario Corps? It is running. So it was announced last November. So currently we have about 3,000 people who are signed up, as well as 13 NGOs. So these are groups like Team Rubicon, Salvation Army, St. John's Ambulance. I was actually with them today where they purchased some new vehicles for their emergency

management support, some of our search and rescue groups. And it's just, it's an amazing thing that we're pulling together. And we have some great announcements coming shortly with some private companies who are going to help us out as well, too. What was the pitch to these organizations? How did you sell this to them? You know, we just really needed to look at the emergencies that are happening in communities. And I mean, when we were talking to groups, it really was about the response that we were getting from organization. So it's more about coordinating the efforts of volunteers.

When things happen and people are saying, hey, I want to help out, we can be that one window approach as well. So this can be, you know, you or I can sign up. I've already signed up, done my training. I'm ready to be deployed. So what kind of training do you do? Online training. Simple module. Then we also do a criminal record check, which is all done through the ministry. So very, very simple. I encourage anyone from, you know, the age of 15 to 100 to get involved. There is something for everybody to do. And what sort of commitment does someone have to give? Is it sort of like being in the reserves or like the National Guard in the States where you train a couple of weekends a month and then you make yourself available a certain time? It's not even that big of a commitment. It's doing the online training to get you registered.

and a little bit of emergency management background, the criminal record checks, so you're ready to go. And then, you know, hopefully pulling everyone together once a year to do some training, but working with the NGO partners as well. And when you do your online training and they ask you these simple questions about your availability, how geographically the distance that you're available to travel. And, you know, if people get a call and they're not able to be deployed at that time due to personal commitments or work commitments, absolutely fine.

So if somebody's in Toronto, they say, I'm willing to travel, they could end up on a government plane to northern Ontario if need be. To anywhere, absolutely. Or up to Simco North. So, you know, this could present a real opportunity. I have the feeling that there is in most Canadians a desire to give of themselves to the country, right? I think if we do things right, we're giving of ourselves for charity. But there's no avenue to give of ourselves for the greater good.

And I think the country is lesser for it. And it feels to me that this could be a prototype for something larger. Not that it's in your purview or your responsibility, but if managed well and if the people coming out of it say, I'm proud to have done this. I'm proud to have gone through this. I'm proud to have helped build something. I feel like I've done something bigger than myself. That could be a model that could spread across the country.

And I think for social cohesion, for national identity, something like this could be a really big, big thing. Yeah, well, absolutely. And Nova Scotia followed suit. They introduced the Nova Scotia Guard. So that was introduced the end of last year as well. So other provinces are looking to what Ontario and Nova Scotia are doing. And you know, like you said, people are willing to give up their time. They want to volunteer.

I look at this as being, you know, it's not like a commitment to like being a soccer coach or something. But this is a bit more of a spontaneous volunteer. If it comes up and you're available to help out. great. And it can be, I mean, people have all kinds of different skill sets. You could be there helping the Salvation Army make sandwiches or you could be helping to fill sandbags. There is something for everybody. Mr. Dunlop, I made peace with the belief that were I to crash land on a desert island with a team of people, the best thing I could do is offer myself up as food. I have no more. We're not asking about it. I have no skills that could help in the

in the real world. But we can teach you how to fill a sandbag. It's not that to book out. All right, I could do that. Well, don't go anywhere. When we come back, we've got more with Minister Dunlop right here on the Ben Milruti show. Welcome back to the show and please welcome back.

Thank you so much for sticking around. Minister Jill Dunlop, the Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response of Ontario. Thank you very much for being here. Yeah, great to be here today. So let's go back to the modernization of the preparedness. What's the expression? Emergency Management Modernization Act. It's a mouthful, isn't it?

It is. We call it Emma. Emma, that's good. That's good. No, I want to talk to you about... Why are we paying for tax tools? Our team doesn't even use. Is now really the right time to make the change?

Why are we paying for tax tools? Our team doesn't even use. Is our tax research tool actually... Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use? Why does my team keep turning to search engines? With Blue Jay, you can help your firm stay ahead by giving your team a tax research tool they'll actually want to use. Get better answers to tough questions.

Blue Jay. AI for tax experts. Amazing days. It's on now with your local Metro. Save big on amazing items, like selected varieties of Campbell's broth for only 125 each. And fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast value packs for just 488 per pound. Only till January 21st.

Shop in store or at metro.ca. You know, how you honed in on it? Because I've had lots of conversations on this show with lots of people. not just from the GTA, but across Ontario. And there's always this sense that, you know, we're giving more of our tax dollars to a system that isn't yielding anything back. And to hear that this has happened, that there's going to be efficiencies,

that it's going to speed things up, that if there is an emergency, the emergency will be dealt with more optimally. I think Ontarians are yearning to hear stuff like this. Oh, absolutely. And the one part of the act that I hadn't got to yet, was working with the municipality. So when we were revisiting the act,

you know, I've said 15 years, it's been saying there, is working with municipalities. We heard from over 550 stakeholders about the need to do this. And what this helps municipalities do is rather than each municipality having to have their own emergency management plan, they can actually work with neighbors.

So a lot of regions will have the very similar situations. I saw it in my own home area. So it really cuts the red tape for those organizations as well. But having that one window and having the off, working with the provincial emergency operation center and my field officers who are on the ground in those communities. So we're out there 365 days a year. You know, our folks are on the ground,

helping doing training with municipalities. I was at Roma this weekend. We did a breakout session. You had 60 different municipal leaders. And so really good to see those folks coming in, learning more about emergency management and how they can better work with the provinces. So it teaches them what they don't know, right?

because in a lot of cases, you don't know what you don't know. No, we sat down and ran through a nice storm scenario with them. And, you know, they learned a lot. But instead of them coming to me with a wish list of we need all of these things, I'm saying, no, look at all the provincial assets that we have that are available to you. All you need to do and we need to work together is to make that phone call when an emergency happens in their area. So your organization doesn't impose a plan on somebody. You leave it to those either municipalities or groups of municipalities to figure out what they need.

need. Yeah. No, we work, you know, hand in hand. So if we recognize there is an issue coming, we're definitely going to reach out to them to make sure that they're supported. As will I, as the minister, we'll reach out to those mayors. But they are welcome to reach out to us any time. We're there for, you know, major emergencies. We're also there to offer, you know, the alert-ready system if they need to have a message sent out quickly to their constituents. So I have to assume that you've, your office has been in contact with every municipality in the province? Everybody. We're constantly doing training and that's part of our mandate. And what's been the reaction to this, this is the new way forward? People are really excited.

Yeah. I think, you know, for those folks who've gone through an emergency and they have a better understanding of, okay, this is what our needs are going to be, but then other people learning and getting better prepared. And that's what our slogan is, a safe practice prepared Ontario. And it really does start at home too. We can't just put it on government. People need to be prepared in their homes. And that's having your 72-hour emergency kit. I gave my daughter's emergency car kits for Christmas. You can imagine three, 20-something girls saying, oh, great, thanks, mom. But they get it, right?

And that's the kind of things we should be thinking about is being better prepared. Well, the province released its second annual emergency preparedness report, and it showed that 100 plus significant emergency incidents were responded to in 2024, and at 1,300-plus people have been evacuated. Do you have projections for the future, like worst-case scenarios that you operate under? I think we're all. We always plan for the worst. Yeah, okay.

And so those numbers would be based on, if you're looking back for last year, it would have been the ice storms, some of the flooding in northern Ontario and wildland fires. We're also dealing, working right now with Cossetuan First Nation. So, you know, that's working with the federal government, the First Nation community themselves, but helping to evacuate residents from the community, but also help to relocate them in the host cities with around Ontario. Talk to me about why it was important to put. the prepared in its center near Pearson. Is it just because it's by the airport

and you can get in and out? Yeah, when you think of some of the locations where we're sending materials to, we need to be located close to the airport. And we work with some of our, another NGO that we work with is GlobalMedic. So not only are they working, you know, here in Ontario helping us out,

they're helping around the world as well too. So having access to that transportation is really important. So once that center is open, can I come for a tour? Absolutely. Because I want to see, so, and if there's like a,

I'm trying to picture a scenario in my head. God forbid there's a wildfire somewhere remote. I have to assume that you're going to be able to see exactly what's going on from a fleet of drones that you're going to put up there. You will see there's, you know, the remote, what we have now is actually pretty cool too. But like lots of screens. Yeah, I would see the new one. I like to see the one. You could even come and see the one now.

Yeah, you'll see the drone footage of what's happening across the province. You'll see information about the community themselves, the vital assets we're trying to protect. lots of great information that's going on. But then also just the work that's being done between the staff who are in the operation center and the folks on the ground too. Minister, I have to assume that this is fairly apolitical thing that you're pushing here.

Like what's been the response from the opposition parties? I can't imagine how to have a problem with it. No, no. And I'm dealing with one of my NDP colleagues right now. He's the NDP MPP for Kassia 1. So, you know, sharing information with him and reaching out. I think we have that great relationship that we can.

But, you know, during emergency preparedness week, I put packages together for all of the MPPs and said them home and said, hey, look, this is something you could be sharing with folks in your area. All this educational material is available online. Like, please share, let people know this information is out there and it's on our website. I mean, yeah, it's got to be really fulfilling to do this sort of work and to know. Yeah, listen, you're in a political environment. You are a politician.

But there's no left-wing way to fight a fire versus a right-wing way to fight a fire. No, it's very operational. And it's the problem-solving. And if somebody needs something, I'm going to get it for them and get back to them. So, you know, it's all about safety of people. We need to protect people. And is there, you know, we were talking earlier about Ontario Corps and how there's Nova Scotia Corps, which I think is, I just have a guard.

Guard, they call it the Guard. The Guard. Yes. It's going to be, I just feel it's the beginning of something really special. special. I was going to say. I lost my train of thought. I just never happened before. You got so excited about Ontario Corps. You wanted to know more. Hold on. I want to mark this moment. Because that's actually never happened. I've always been out of sometimes forget my words, but I've never actually lost my train of thought before. No, it's so exciting. But are there, I mean, as optimistic and as upbeat as we are about this, we are planning for really bad scenarios.

And, you know, what happens? Who takes over once the crisis is over? Like, once the fire is out, once the ice storm has been mitigated, what's the next step in the protocol? Well, we work closely with the Ministry, Municipal Affairs, and Housing, so they're responsible for any of the funding that may be available after the fact. But we still continue to work with the municipality to ensure that they They have the supports they need moving forward after that time.

We don't just walk away and say emergency over and you're done. We're on to the next opportunity to train and look at possible tabletop scenarios to work with those municipalities. My last question is probably my most important. I don't have time for a very long answer. But if one joins the Ontario Corps, does one get a title and a uniform? Not a uniform, but they get a T-shirt. What a hat? Can you get a hat to?

Yes, we have hats. There you go. I even have tukes on order considering how cold it is. Minister, don't skimp on the swag. If I'm putting my life on the line, I want a hat to go with a T-shirt. With your T-shirt. Jill Della, thank you very much for being here. Come back anytime.

Thank you. Doc returns this January on Global. My mind is trying to tell me something. With gripping new cases. If it doesn't work, you'll kill him. It will work. They're going to make you the fall guy for this. I just don't want to fail anyone ever again.

As her fight moves forward to recover what was lost. You can't undo what was done. Just let it go. Please. No. And rebuild her life. I'll do whatever it takes. I'm here if you need to me.

I know. Doc, all new Wednesday at 9 Eastern 10 Mountain on Global. Stream on Stack TV.