Defence agreements signed with U.S.

Canada and the U.S.havefinalizedone agreement and renewed another to better co-ordinate civilian and military forces against threats.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay, speaking Tuesday night to a group of defence officials, diplomats and civil servants, said the two countries were expected Wednesday to renew the Civil Assistance Plan and sign off on the Combined Defence Plan.

His office confirmed Wednesday they had been signed.

The civil assistance agreement lets military personnel and equipment deploy rapidly to humanitarian events, MacKay said in notes prepared for his speech to the Permanent Joint Board on Defence.

"In the event of floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, or to assist in the aftermath of a terrorist attackmilitary members from one nation will be ready to support the armed forces of the other, all supporting lead civilian agencies," he said.

The defence agreement sets out the authority and means for the two countries to approve homeland military operations against threats, as well asthe process for sharing information.

"This has already been done to a certain degree, but there is still room for more integrated collaboration domestically and bi-nationally," MacKay said.

"I think that we need to begin to consider partnerships from the ground up from the local first responders to international organizations."

The Beyond the Border agreement signed Dec. 7, 2011, set out some of the ways Canada and the U.S. were looking to better co-ordinate security.

The wide-ranging agreement, designed toimprove co-ordination to speed up border crossingsand improve security, requires the two countriesto look at both broad and specific ways to work better together. Thatwill includeeverything from making sure border agents have radios that can communicate, to having a plan for managing traffic betweenCanada and the U.S.in emergencies, to preparing for international cyber security and health threats.