Mr. Speaker, aid to Taiwan was not affected at all by China. We acted immediately with respect to financial aid, which we distributed to a number of local organizations in Taiwan as well as to the Red Cross.
With respect to the issue of search and rescue, directly supporting development of the search and rescue team has not been part of CIDA's practice in the past. However, as the new minister I have actually reviewed this policy.
We are in the process of communicating with the Vancouver search and rescue team. I am hoping that if there is any need in the future we will be in a position to deploy them.