Our program consists of overseeing the development of continuity plans, their implementation and maintenance, and exercises. 

While the Continuity Management team is responsible for institutional continuity planning activities, Heads of Units are responsible for developing a continuity plan for the continued provision of their respective unit's critical activities including identifying essential resources and personnel, securing an alternative space, and communicating with those impacted. 

Examples of incidents that can lead to continuity plan activations: 

• Cyber attacks 
• Threats to public health 
• Physical disruptions (i.e., fire or flood making the workspace unusable) 
• Utility outages 
• Natural events (earthquakes, tornadoes or other severe weather) 

Your continuity plan

Where to start  

Use the Continuity of Critical Functions Exercise tools to start your Unit’s continuity planning. It will help you determine if a function is deemed critical to the University’s mission. It will help you develop coping solutions in the event of an emergency or disruption that impacts the normal operation of the critical function and determine if you need additional assistance to mitigate the impacts.  

Continuity planning process

1. Form a planning group 
2. Identify all Unit functions 
3. Identify Unit critical functions 
4. Identify criticality levels for Unit critical functions  
5. Detail critical functions, including: 
   • Individuals performing the function 
   • Required knowledge, competencies, certification, and skills  
   • Periods of high activity 
   • Required documentation and information security requirements 
   • Space requirements 
   • Required utilities 
   • Required equipment, material, and software 
   • Physical security requirements 
   • Fire safety requirements 
   • OH&S Requirements 
   • Identification of upstream and downstream dependencies  
6. Develop and implement a continuity strategy