Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced a new strategy Friday aimed at protecting Canada's infrastructure.

The strategy, called the National Safety and Action Plan for Critical Infrastructure, covers food, water, electricity grids, transportation networks, financial systems and telecommunications, among other assets.

The plan will "allow us to respond and recover swiftly when disruptions do occur in any of these important sectors," Toews said during a media briefing at the control centre of Ottawa Hydro.

He was joined by Saint Boniface MP Shelley Glover, Ontario Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Rick Bartolucci, and Hector Goudreau, Alberta's minister of municipal affairs,

Toews pointed to the 1998 ice storm that affected large areas of Ontario and Quebec as an example of a situation that left many vital sectors affected.

"The disruption of one sector affected scores of others, interrupting the delivery of important services that Canadians depend upon in their daily lives," he said. "That is what we want to avoid in the future."