Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of Parliament, colleagues from CARE and UNICEF. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the ongoing efforts in Haiti and the role of the Red Cross. There is no need to mention the events that have brought us here today. We are all aware of the destruction and devastation caused by the Haitian earthquake about 20 months ago.

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  In the case of the Red Cross volunteers, no.

Finance committee  Yes, and the simulations, of course. It's everything related to that.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Well, it's a little different in our case. They're not waiting in a centre to intervene, so that doesn't call for it. We're just emphasizing that we're increasing the training quite a bit and that the training should be part of that, but they're not waiting in a location, so it wouldn't be...unless they're intervening, really.

Finance committee  In our case again, there's no intervention where there's no municipal agreement, in terms of defining.... So we don't have volunteers volunteering on their own.

Finance committee  I think our comments were just enlarging the perspective in terms of preparation to face disasters. Following the ice storm, setting up 300 shelters from one day to the next in Canada was not something we envisaged. More and more preparation in the role of citizens in those situations is key.

Finance committee  No. Well, I don't have any comments on why it takes so long. I'll let you do your work on that.

Finance committee  The wording for proposed paragraphs 60(y) and 60(z) is as follows: (y) $1,000, if the taxpayer performed in the taxation year at least 100 hours but less than 200 hours of volunteer service as an ambulance technician, a firefighter or a person who assists in the search or rescue of individuals or in other emergency management (mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery) activities; and (z) $2,000, if the taxpayer performed in the taxation year 200 hours or more of volunteer service as an ambulance technician, a firefighter or a person who assists in the search or rescue of individuals or in other emergency management activities.

Finance committee  “...emergency management activities.”

Finance committee  I have a copy for you.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  In the search and rescue case they would qualify, but the point we were referring to is not that one. We're not in search and rescue. The aspect we're referring to is enlarging the preparation. We're doing a lot of disaster management and intervention. We cannot know when a disaster occurs in Canada, but we know that the mitigating effect of being prepared to respond is a key thing.

Finance committee  I haven't seen the ten points.