Thank you for the question.
There have been direct and significant impacts on CHSLDs and long-term care facilities in Quebec and Ontario. Without a doubt, the presence of Canadian Forces members at those places has helped save lives when the situation was chaotic and health workers in those establishments were completely overwhelmed.
As far as other contributions go, there were many unknowns about the situation that took place in the spring. This was a completely appropriate response, considering what was at risk of happening—that is, increased demand after floods or forest fires, as we have seen.
This year, we have been extremely lucky in terms of floods and forest fires across the country. We were worried about potentially having to both respond to disasters of that nature and to a situation that was perhaps to require increased presence in all sorts of activities related to the pandemic.
Following that experience during the second wave and while society was restarting, we know that it would have been appropriate to reduce the number of staff in the short term. We will be able to increase the number should the situation require that.