Health committee  When I said we were short on PPE, I think that was at the very beginning of the pandemic. We've been actively working with the provincial healthy ministry, and we've also been looking at reusable PPE as a backup. With our current run rate, we're not short of PPE because they—

Health committee  We have a reusable stock. When we were short, we were looking for washable gowns, washable face masks and washable masks, and then the normal sorts of PPE that we'd get through the government as well. We pursued all avenues.

Health committee  I think the airports fall within the jurisdiction of an essential service, especially in the pandemic. Not knowing the communities, I can't speak to the impact on the communities, but if they were rural and remote—and generally they tend to be rural and remote—there'd be a tremendous impact on their ability to access critical care services.

Health committee  I would be, absolutely. There have been issues for a variety of reasons, and we're very concerned about airports and their ability to function, because we are completely dependent on them, especially for our fixed-wing aircraft.

Health committee  Absolutely. We're completely dependent on airports, so if an airport did shut down because of any reason—and there are many different reasons for a shutdown besides that reason—we would be affected. It would deeply affect our operations, particularly in the north.

Health committee  I think it's very difficult for these communities to have field hospitals, at least as I know them from the military. We'd have an operating room, ventilators and ICU capacity for any prolonged period of time. These communities, even the largest of them, have maybe 3,000 to 5,000 people, so it would be hard to sustain field operations for a prolonged period of time.

Health committee  I did hear about that, yes.

Health committee  To date, my air-ops people have said not so much, so—

Health committee  Well, it would, but to my knowledge, because of that there hasn't been a cessation of service to my knowledge in Ontario, but—

Health committee  Obviously we have some capacity, but in planning for the COVID surge, we have to think beyond the normal influenza season, with its one or two patients, or even three patients, who need immediate evacuation because they're in severe respiratory distress. One of our surge plans, apart from having the critical-care paramedics, is that we've liaised with the Canadian Armed Forces to see whether we could use a request for assistance, RFA.

Health committee  I think it's important to realize that, for some of the communities that we're talking about for the surge, it wouldn't be just the equipment that would go, it would be the critical care paramedic who would go with the kit. They have very little infrastructure there. At some of these remote indigenous communities in northern Ontario, it's a nursing station with no in-patient facility.

Health committee  We actually work very closely with all of them to share best practices. I think we realize that STARS does a wonderful job in what they do; LifeFlight as well. As we know, it's about sharing best practices. In fact, we set up a Canadian organization, the Canadian Transport Medicine Association, that meets annually to share best practices, and we have a lot of collaboration back and forth.

Health committee  My understanding is, and this was based on a conversation maybe a month ago, I don't think they've seen the same spike in volumes—lucky for them. I think Ontario, unfortunately, has more COVID patients and more ICU patients. Because we do the transports in between, to access critical care capacity, we've actually done quite a few and I don't think they've had as many in Alberta or in Saskatchewan, thankfully.

Health committee  I think we had the opportunity to present that but, to be honest, I think in the time of COVID it's been more about communicating the capability to our northern partners. Certainly, I think our remote indigenous communities are particularly interested. I've spent a fair bit of time trying to communicate that capability because, unfortunately, if there is a surge in the northern indigenous communities, or any rural community for that matter, we can't predict where and we can't augment all of the hospitals all at once for an indefinite period of time.

Health committee  The support for mass vaccinations in the north?