Evidence of meeting #5 for National Defence in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was question.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
So perhaps you could be administering them in areas where there's a shortage of front-line health workers. Has there been discussion on that?
2 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
At this stage, we're very much higher-level than that. But because we have forces prepared for a wide range of scenarios, if that requirement were to come across to Public Safety and the Minister of National Defence for consideration, the chief of the defence staff would be preparing his best military advice on the way forward and whether or not we would be involved, and exactly which part we would be involved in.
2 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
As a follow-up to that, will all of the Canadian Forces personnel working on the front lines of this distribution operation be vaccinated before they begin to engage with all of the public?
2 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
I will defer to Admiral Patterson on specifics, if she has anything to add with regard to medical.... We're currently in the analysis phase. We're preparing advice so that the chief of the defence staff will be in a position to provide his input and his advice to government on the way forward and the prioritization of CAF members.
2 p.m.
RAdm Rebecca Patterson
Madam Chair, I have nothing further to add.
2 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
As maybe a follow-up question, for those individuals, will there be a policy, perhaps, that it will be mandatory for those personnel to actually receive the vaccines, or do you have a policy for those who perhaps may choose not to?
2 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
At this time, this is being considered. As I said, we'll be preparing the advice. The Canadian Armed Forces surgeon general is very much central to the advice that's prepared for the chief of the defence staff.
2 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Thank you.
My next question is about PPE. How much of what the Canadian Armed Forces has ordered has yet to be delivered?
2 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
A lot of the PPE existed in our stock. We took every step to ensure that when we utilized the PPE, we put in the request so that we could continue. We are currently acquiring additional PPE. I would say that we are in very good shape to respond to a wide range of scenarios. We continue, as part of the federal buy, to work closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada as well as PSPC in terms of buying it for more effective use and distribution throughout Canada.
2 p.m.
Conservative
Terry Dowdall Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Basically, at this time you're confident with the amount of PPE in stock. Even with the looming numbers going forward, at this particular moment in time, you think we're okay. As we need to go to more long-term care homes, we seem to think.... You think we'll be okay.
2:05 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
I would say we have an appropriate amount of PPE to deal with a wide range of scenarios.
I would defer to Admiral Patterson with regard to the specifics of medical PPE and possible medical requirements.
2:05 p.m.
RAdm Rebecca Patterson
Madam Chair, yes, we do hold a certain amount of medical-grade PPE, and we currently are holding adequate amounts to respond to requests from government as well as supporting our own requirements over time.
Again, because there is a global shortage of medical-grade PPE, we work very closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada, along with PSPC, in order to make sure we have what we need when we need it.
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Major-General Fortin, Rear-Admiral Patterson, Brigadier-General Mialkowski and Brigadier-General Carpentier, thank you for being here and for your service to Canadians.
Admiral Patterson, it's good to see you again today. You were with us here answering questions the last time. I have to say that there aren't too many people I know who, after having submitted themselves to a couple of hours of questioning at one committee meeting, sign up for another couple of hours. Thank you, in particular, for being with us again today.
I had the chance in our last meeting to thank the members of the armed forces for their service as part of Operation Laser. Once again, I just want to briefly extend my thanks to all of you for your service and the service of the men and women under your command.
One of the long-term care residences in which you served is the Eatonville Care Centre in my riding of Etobicoke Centre. That was one of the initial five in which you served in Ontario. We're mourning the loss to COVID-19 of 42 residents of the Eatonville Care Centre.
I know your service was essential not only to providing care but also to saving lives, and for that, I and my community are grateful. I'd like to extend my thanks to you, but also I'd ask you to pass along my thanks to the men and women under your command.
I'd also like to thank you again for documenting what you found in those long-term care homes and some of the horrendous conditions and, frankly, in some cases, abusive practices you discovered, which have led to a lot of advocacy by me and a number of my caucus colleagues. I've been advocating for change in long-term care homes, including having national standards.
It's because of your disclosure and that transparency you provided that this action was taken and subsequent action is being taken to address those problems. I thank you for that as well, because you have made a difference for seniors—I hope and expect—for years and generations to come.
My first question is about Operation LASER. Can you tell us how many members of the Canadian Forces participated in Operation LASER? How many homes were they in? What influence did the Canadian Forces have through Operation LASER?
2:05 p.m.
BGen Conrad Mialkowski
Madam Chair, I'm not sure if the video is frozen from Ottawa. Perhaps I would be able to answer the question in that in Ontario, during the 67 days that we provided support to the Province of Ontario through a request for assistance, we operated inside of seven long-term care facilities and had just over 670 Canadian Armed Forces members, who either worked in the facilities or supported the work around those facilities.
I'll stop this response here to see if Major General Fortin has been able to get his video to work at that end.
2:10 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
Madam President, thank you. I apologize. We froze for a second here, so I missed part of the answer, but I am grateful that my colleague was able to answer part of it.
I would say that at the peak of the spring period, forces were identified and were ready to respond to a wide range of scenarios, as I indicated earlier. At its peak, we had about 24,000 personnel identified, many of whom were on stay-at-home orders but by name were put against a specific task. Airplanes were in the air; ships were at sea and forces were ready to respond to a wide range of scenarios, as I indicated earlier, to a total of 24,000 personnel.
Of course, as you realize, nearly 1,700 people were committed to helping in long-term care facilities in Quebec and Ontario. That represents the majority of the folks who were actually involved in providing that level of support.
2:10 p.m.
Liberal
Yvan Baker Liberal Etobicoke Centre, ON
Thank you.
What influence did the work of the Canadian Forces have through operation LASER?
2:10 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
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.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Thank you so much, Madame Chair. I want to join everyone else in thanking our witnesses for being here, for the work that you're doing on protecting Canadians and, of course, the protection you're providing to our troops.
It was just recently reported that Canadian Armed Forces personnel were up at Opaskwayak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba dealing with an outbreak in a long-term care facility out there. My understanding is that they're doing recon and trying to determine what assistance may be needed.
Would our witnesses be able to provide any more information on what's going to happen in that particular case? For a first nation, as opposed to a municipality, to receive assistance as part of article 6 of the National Defence Act, would it be required to go through the province, through the premier's office in particular? Finally, are there any other northern and remote communities that have requested the Canadian Armed Forces to do similar work?
2:10 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
At the Joint Operations Command, we very much are tracking the possibility of deployment in that locality. On 18 November, a small detachment of eight personnel from the CAF reconnaissance team went forward to assess the impact of COVID-19 at The Pas and OCN community with a view to better understand what the problem is. The assessment is being done and the CAF will be prepared to respond should a formal request for assistance be received.
As of just this morning, I understand that a request is being formulated and it's going to be looked at over the course of the day. Unfortunately, I don't have any particular details as to what the response might be in detail but it will be considered. The degree of involvement of the province is unknown to me at this time, but we're all in close coordination, as well as with other federal partners.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Thank you very much.
General Fortin, you were the commanding officer for Operation Impact, and I believe you were the general in command at the time of the COVID restrictions coming into play and the drawdown of forces there. Can you speak to how that played out on the ground in Kuwait and Iraq, as well as Lebanon and Palestine, with our forces in those locations?
2:15 p.m.
MGen Dany Fortin
Unfortunately, I was not the commander of Operation Impact. However, from October 2018 to late November 2019—almost exactly a year ago—I led the establishment of, and executed and commanded, NATO Mission Iraq, which fell under Operation Impact for administrative purposes. I can speak at length on what we experienced over the course of the 13 months that I spent there. The geopolitical situation took a bit of a turn a couple of months later, and so I cannot comment specifically—
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
I appreciate that. That was my confusion. I believed you were still on the ground when that took place earlier this year.
Would you be able to take this on notice then? I know that the forces has maps that are unclassified that show where Canadian troops are currently located and what operations they're involved in. Would you be able to show what the troop numbers were before COVID became a pandemic, probably early March, where the numbers sat mid-summer and then where they are today? I think that would something that would be of interest to our committee, to be able to document and demonstrate how the troop numbers have changed.
