The Program's goal is to reduce losses from natural hazards and to enhance disaster response preparedness. It will do that primarily by improving the national assessment of hazards that impact Canadians, by improving access to information necessary for hazard mitigation and emergency response and by improving our understanding of how to mitigate geological hazards. The Program has taken on Earth Science Sector responsibilities in emergency preparedness, safety and security. These responsibilities include those under the National Emergency Preparedness Act, the International Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Research and Technology Inititiative (CRTI), and determination of the geomagnetic reference field for navigation.

The program contributes to reducing losses from earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, landslides and magnetic storms. It will strengthen integrated national hazard assessments, and focus on communities and critical infrastructure at risk. It will advance earthquake and geomagnetic national monitoring, and generate improved space weather forecasting and mitigation services. Models of landslide behaviour will be developed to assist in the assessment of landslide hazard and mitigation. The program will make Earth Science Sector hazard information compatible with other map information, to allow easy integration, for use in mitigation and to manage emergencies. It will rapidly generate maps of radioactivity contamination and define the nature and magnitude of explosions.