Business Continuity Program

Effective Date: September 25, 2014
Responsibility: Vice-President, Legal Services, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

APPLICATION

This Policy applies to all CBC/Radio-Canada employees.

OBJECTIVE

To ensure that CBC/Radio-Canada’s employees, assets, reputation, critical business functions (minimal level of broadcasting operations) and the environment are protected in case of an emergency and/or crisis situation.

DEFINITIONS

Emergency: An incident or situation that occurs unexpectedly and that impacts an affected site and/or a Component’s operations. An emergency poses an immediate risk to the Corporation’s employees and/or assets, or to critical business functions, or to the environment (e.g., power outage, loss of water supply and/or air conditioning, storms, accidents).

Crisis Situation: An event that significantly disrupts one or more Components (its employees and assets or critical business functions or the environment), or could jeopardize the Corporation’s reputation (e.g., major earthquake, pandemic, natural disaster, major technological failure).

STATEMENT OF POLICY

CBC/Radio-Canada is committed to ensuring the continuity of its operations (which includes the protection of its employees, assets, reputation, critical business functions and the environment) by promptly addressing emergencies and crisis situations. If not addressed in a timely manner, an event can turn into an emergency, and could then become a crisis situation. Concerted action to respond must therefore be taken immediately in all Corporation departments. Moreover, in the event of a national crisis or emergency, the Government of Canada expects all broadcasters – public and private – to play a key role in alerting Canadians of impending life threatening situations.

In accordance with our commitment, members of the Senior Executive Team and their respective management team have the following responsibilities:

  • Identifying their Component’s critical functions and the resources that are required to maintain a minimal level of operations within an established timeframe in order to respond to our key role to broadcast our programming and our commitment as a broadcaster during a national crisis or emergency period;
  • Keeping their Business Continuity Plans (BCP) up to date;
  • Ensuring that their employees are familiar with their Component’s BCP;
  • Conducting exercises periodically to ensure their BCP’s continued effectiveness; and
  • Supporting the implementation and routine review of their BCP (for operations under their purview).

All employees are responsible for:

  • Being familiar with the different procedures related to their Component’s BCP; and
  • Understanding their role within the BCP.

An event can be classified, by severity, as either an emergency or a crisis situation.

An emergency can only be declared by the Executive Vice-President of English or French Services (or their delegates), and is managed locally by the Emergency Operation Team (EOT).

A crisis situation can only be declared by the President and CEO or the Chair of the National Crisis Management Team (NCMT), or their delegates. A crisis situation also requires NCMT intervention.

In collaboration with the vice-presidency(ies) impacted by an event, the NCMT has the ultimate authority to take all required decisions in response to this event (emergency or crisis).

HISTORY

This policy replaces 2.2.18: Crisis Management (March 2007).

INQUIRIES

All questions pertaining to the interpretation or application of this Policy should be referred to the Vice-President, Legal Services, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. The Business Continuity Program Manager is responsible for compliance monitoring and implementation of the Corporation’s Business Continuity Program.

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