OTTAWA — Canada will soon have a new operations centre to help co-ordinate countrywide disaster response.

Government officials on Friday offered media outlets a tour of the new facility, which is expected to be open next month. For security reasons, journalists were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement preventing them from revealing the facility’s location.

The heart of the facility is the “operational centre” — a room resembling NASA’s mission control, with a pair of massive two-storey-high screens connected to more than 500 different datapoints, space for 80 people and capacity to handle multiple emergencies at once.

Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski said the new space brings more people together in the same room, allowing for better co-ordination of national respo

See Full Page