Health committee  To start with your second question, early days were the immediate response. We all know about the Canadians caught on the cruise ships who needed to be brought home and be treated in the most humane way possible at the same time as being quarantined. We provided immediate assista

Health committee  First of all, we need to maintain an expertise. Of course the best way to prevent pandemics is to help address early onset and provide all the support, but also, if we're going to fight this pandemic, we need to help countries eradicate it as well, not just in Canada but in the r

Health committee  Absolutely. I think the important thing is that this is a poll we're doing every two weeks. We wanted to establish a bit of a baseline, because, of course, this is a new reality to have so many people quarantined at home. It's to understand what they're living through. What you s

Health committee  Certainly until there's a vaccine, but even if there is a vaccine, there's no guarantee that there won't be another element of pandemic. I think the area where the Red Cross contributes the most is in the surge capacity. We've been building that up to face natural disasters, agai

Health committee  In terms of the gifts—and we're in that process—we're working very closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada. All of that has been compliant with our norms. I'm not aware of anything what was given to us that was not useful. We knew beforehand what was being shipped. It is

Health committee  Well, it was to do the shipping, actually. We did some of the procurement outside, but the Chinese Red Cross was on the recipient end of this. This is very common in these types of emergencies. We're used to, as I said, not just in this situation but in previous situations, to

Health committee  No. We have a partnership. We have an ongoing partnership to help with GAC, Global Affairs Canada. We do this on a regular basis. They activated that agreement in terms of facilitating that. This is what we do. We've been doing this for some time. We have the logistical capacit

Health committee  Well, GAC has to go outside, I guess.... I'm not sure I have the answer to your question. We have a system to send this off, in terms of a previous agreement that we activated. I could get some additional answers to you, if you want. Again, this is something we have done in t

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  I'm sorry. Could you be more precise in the question?

Health committee  I think from the early stages there was a request for some additional support. This, I think, is what we normally do in terms of the Canadian government assets to facilitate that send-off of equipment to China. You're mentioning 16 tonnes. We're also on the receiving end of gifts

Health committee  For Montreal in particular, the answer is threefold. First, the main focus is on supporting the integrated university health and social services centre, or CIUSSS, on the West Island of Montreal. There are three areas of action. First, we help them recruit personnel. We know tha

Health committee  We have very close ties with the West Island of Montreal CIUSSS and the Government of Quebec. We're in constant contact. We work all the time, in every province, with provincial and regional authorities. It's an ongoing relationship. The demand has increased in Quebec government

Health committee  A large part of the funding announced supports COVID-19 activities that are already in progress, as I said. The Red Cross, together with Health Canada, has significantly increased its support for people in quarantine. These are obviously past operations. There are also the curren

Health committee  Good evening, Mr. Chair. Thank you for having me here. My name is Conrad Sauvé. I'm the president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Red Cross. I'm honoured to be here today to update you on the important work, as outlined in the documents provided, that the Canadian Re