Foreign Affairs committee  That's an important question. Unfortunately, in many cases, conflicts are ongoing. COVID-19 has exacerbated the challenges of responding in some situations. A pandemic adds another layer to a conflict or natural disaster, which can be interconnected. Unfortunately, the needs in that regard still exist.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely. Building on the previous question, I would say that access to vaccines is obviously a challenge. Who handles the distribution? It is always local organizations. Local Red Cross and Red Crescent sections exist, but resources are not deployed to build programming or training capacity.

Foreign Affairs committee  For the Red Cross, I would ask Kelsey Lemon to comment on our programming in this respect.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's always done through local organizations. Right now, we rely on specific programs, but there is no recognition for building organizational capacity. It takes time and investment in the systems. As I said earlier, we struggle with having to provide increasingly complex responses, as Ms.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure talking to the committee today. I'm not going to repeat what has been already said in terms of the compounded challenges that humanitarian organizations are facing with the impact of COVID globally. Of course, we're dealing with more isolated communities cut off from their traditional support systems.

Health committee  We've actually set up a virtual assistance program. I'm going to go back a little bit to what my colleague from Ornge was talking about, as well. We have a modular capacity—so a small capacity—to deploy not full field hospitals but a smaller capacity. We've been getting a lot of requests around providing additional equipment as well so that communities that are isolated can set up quarantine structures.

Health committee  I think the biggest area that has increased following this response is we've built an expertise in infection training and control internationally that we've brought domestically, so we're getting a lot of requests from institutions and organizations to send in an expert. A lot of material is available online, but to accompany them and understand the activities they're organizing, and how they can do that safely for their personnel, their volunteers and themselves is where we're getting the most requests.

Health committee  I don't have the exact number, but we probably have two 80-bed field hospitals. We have a number of mobile units as well. These deployments have been done at the request of the health authorities in the province. In the case of B.C., it asked early on. We had done exercises. We had looked at the possibility that this could be used.

Health committee  Yes, but I think what I was talking about earlier is that we need to go back and look at what the actual use of all this equipment was. What's the best way to do this? We couldn't have answered all the requests; there are number of tented structures that have been everywhere. We responded in the way we could with what we had.

Health committee  I think it's the extension of what we've been doing in Trenton in terms of returning Canadians on cruise ship lines. We've extended that to support the Public Health Agency. People who arrive here who don't have a clear plan for their quarantine, we're supporting them in that quarantine period.

Health committee  The cruise ship plan was the Canadian bases, and there were a number of them. That's what we did. There were about 1,200. Then following that, we're supporting—I don't have the exact number—I think eight airports. For a Canadian who comes back who does not have a clear plan, we will support that quarantine period as close as possible to the airport to avoid travel within the country.

Health committee  That's right, exactly.

Health committee  Are you asking me whether funding is slow to materialize to support our operations in Quebec?

Health committee  The allocation of emergency funding is a broader issue. Obviously, in an emergency situation, we must be able to access funding quickly. The Red Cross had reserve funds that it could use right away. We have the government's support and we're dealing with this issue. This hasn't slowed down our operations in Quebec.

Health committee  The broader issue concerns how we can provide funding more quickly and implement mechanisms in emergency situations. This is a real issue. We're holding discussions with public safety and with the provinces about quicker access to funding. We've created reserve funds to deal with these situations.