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Purpose – The present study seeks to explore the minds and thoughts of emergency management professionals in Ontario in order to better understand the institution, and engage them in a renewed dialogue with communities, academia and other stakeholders. The intention is to strengthen the institution of emergency management, which is the foundation of disaster mitigation. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on interviews conducted with emergency management professionals from the public, private and non-governmental organization (NGO) sectors in the Province of Ontario, Canada. The questions were a combination of structured and open-ended questions to elicit rich details on emergency management professionals' views. Analysis of interview transcriptions highlighted the attitudes and perceptions of the interviewees with respect to themselves, their own organizations, their role in emergency management, and their jurisdictions. The study also provided an opportunity for respondents to provide examples or comments to illustrate their responses. A total of 43 interviews have been analyzed for this paper. Findings – The research objective of enhancing the understanding of the institution of emergency management through the minds of emergency management professionals in Ontario has been successfully achieved. It is clear that emergency managers and other professionals engaged in consulting, response and humanitarian assistance activities realize their role and responsibilities quite well. The majority of participants felt that politics and a lack of understanding of one anothers' roles often limit progress. A clear consensus regarding engaging community players in the development of mitigation strategies and resource allocation emerged in this study. Originality/value – The research conducted is the first of its kind in the province of Ontario in Canada. With the help of personal interviews and survey questionnaire, a better understanding of the emergency management institution and professionals working in this field could be realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]