By Andrew Mayeda

OTTAWA -- The federal government plans to roll out a national strategy this summer to protect critical infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines from terrorist attacks and other threats, according to documents obtained by CanWest News Service.

The plan, in the works for almost three years, is revealed in briefing notes prepared for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day after an al-Qaida affiliate in the Arabian Peninsula threatened in February to attack the petroleum interests of countries, such as Canada, that supply oil and gas to the United States.

The national strategy would reach far beyond the oil and gas sector to cover everything from power plants and telecommunications networks to banking systems, hospitals, transport routes, food-distribution networks, manufacturing facilities and the water supply.

"There is a growing consensus in both the public and private sectors that there is a need for both critical infrastructure protection and cyber-security strategies to bring together existing capacities as well as to set new priorities," states a briefing note prepared for Day on Feb. 19 and obtained under the Access to Information Act.

"The strategies would provide national leadership and enhance our ability to reduce vulnerabilities, detect threats and improve response and recovery times when there are significant national incidents."

The briefing documents offer few details on the proposed national critical infrastructure protection strategy. But a position paper prepared in November 2004 suggests the government establish a national advisory panel to help co-ordinate responses to emergencies. The panel would include representatives from municipal and provincial governments as well as industry.

The strategy would be expected to employ an "all-hazards" approach that would develop a common standard for analysing the risk of all kinds of emergencies, from terrorist attacks to natural disasters or hacker attacks on computer networks.

Support could be provided by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre, an around-the-clock operation headquartered at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

By rolling out a national strategy, Canada would be following in the footsteps of the United States, which has co-ordinated its efforts under the Department of Homeland Security.

This month, the U.S. department introduced specific plans for 17 key sectors. Similarly, Canada has identified 10 critical sectors that require protection, such as energy and utilities, as well as communications and information technology.

But the Canadian plan could run into resistance from industry, which owns and operates much of the infrastructure, and provincial, territorial and municipal governments, which in many cases claim jurisdiction. Federal officials have been consulting with government and industry players for two years.

Industry representatives said Friday they are cautiously optimistic that the federal strategy won't be too heavy-handed.

"If it continues to go in the direction it's going in, we would probably be quite pleased," said Francis Bradley, vice president of communications at the Canadian Electricity Association. "But the devil, of course, will be in the details."

Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Day, would not confirm if the government plans to introduce the strategy this summer.

-- CanWest News Service