Provincial Emergency Response Plan

Minister Approval

Order in Council 1021/2025 ^{footnote 1[1]}assigns the Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response emergency response planning responsibilities for any emergency affecting Ontario that requires the coordination of provincial emergency management, and any other peacetime emergency not assigned to another ministry.

In fulfilment of these responsibilities, the Provincial Emergency Response Plan is hereby approved.                                     
                                                                        
Date: October 6, 2025

The Honourable Jill Dunlop                                                           
Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response 
Province of Ontario

Document history

This version of the 2019 Provincial Emergency Response Plan replaces all previous versions.

Amendments to the current version can occur following an approved administrative or comprehensive review. All approved updates will be recorded in the following table:

Publications management

In accordance with the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, the Provincial Emergency Response Plan (PERP) is available to the public on the ontario.ca website.

Copies of the PERP are to be widely distributed among the emergency management community. Organizations that keep hard or digital copies of this document as a resource for their emergency operations are responsible for ensuring that they have the most up-to-date version of the document.

This publication is subject to review and amendments. This process is the responsibility of the Ministry of Emergency Preparedness and Response (MEPR). Stakeholders and partner organizations are encouraged to review and evaluate this plan as they use it, and to submit comments and suggestions to MEPR.

Amendments may be published following approval of annual administrative reviews, or a comprehensive revision conducted every 5 years. The version control form in the Document history section will be used to keep a record of approved amendments.

To make comments and suggestions relating to the Provincial Emergency Response Plan, or to request it in a different format, please contact:

Ministry of Emergency Preparedness and Response
Attn: Plans Team 
Ref: Provincial Emergency Response Plan
25 Morton Shulman Avenue,
Toronto, ON, M3M 0B1, Canada

E-mail: EMO.Plans@ontario.ca

Website:

Emergency management (English)
Gestion des situations d’urgence (French)

Executive summary

While Ontario is a safe place to live and work, emergencies can happen anywhere and at any time. Ontario’s Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response, through the Ministry of Emergency Preparedness and Response (MEPR), is responsible for ensuring that the provincial response to an emergency is effectively coordinated.

Section 6.0.1 of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA) requires the formulation of a provincial emergency management plan that describes how Ontario will coordinate the response to any emergency that requires coordination at the provincial level. Further to this requirement, the Provincial Emergency Management Strategy and Action Plan (PEMSAP) was released in 2023 and includes goals and actions to advance the vision of a safe, practiced and prepared Ontario.

Aligned with the PEMSAP, the Provincial Emergency Response Plan (PERP) describes how the province coordinates emergency response when there are multiple ministries and other provincial organizations involved. This type of coordination is usually needed for widespread and complex emergencies. The PERP does this by::

• providing a planning basis that describes how emergencies can impact Ontario
• describing how emergencies typically unfold in the province
• providing an organizational structure to highlight primary lines of communication
• describing the basic mechanisms for how a multi-organizational provincial emergency response can be effectively coordinated
• providing an overview of the legislated responsibilities of the provincial ministries for emergency response

Effective emergency management in Ontario requires a coordinated response between many different types of organizations, including:

• municipalities (including single-tier, lower- and upper-tiers)
• unincorporated communities living in unorganized territories
• other public sector organizations (for example, hospitals, school boards)
• the Government of Canada
• private industry, including critical infrastructure owners and operators
• first Nation communities on-reserve
• provincial ministries, agencies, boards, and commissions
• specialized response teams (for example, Urban Search and Rescue)
• neighbouring provinces and states
• non-governmental organizations

The primary audience for the PERP is the emergency managers and officials who develop and implement emergency plans for their organizations.