Health committee  If you make the scenario as bleak and as bad as possible--

Health committee  The answer to your question is that we've been using the process since the spring that we would use should there be 15% absenteeism, 30% or 40%. The process that we are using is the same. It is defined in the federal emergency response plan.

Health committee  Part of the answer is that the Government of Canada is not going to be “running” everything that is happening in the country.

Health committee  Yes, the Government Operations Centre will play a very active role in coordinating the federal response with the provincial and territorial responses. There were daily and weekly exchanges of information. There was the sharing of strategies. People were informed of what was going

Health committee  Many.

Health committee  I can tell you that I meet with ADMs every week. I have a call with ADMs every week. In the spring during the first wave, I started meeting with them and having a call with them every day, and then it went to three times a week.

Health committee  That is precisely the principle of the operations continuity plan. We can't have 40 plans for 40 possible problems. We have an overall approach. In the case of the H1N1 virus, in fact, should there be a pandemic, that problem was a possibility. And so we asked for a specific plan

Health committee  Our readiness increases with every passing day. No society in the world can say that it is totally ready to deal with such a situation. However, whenever a department does an exercise, it identifies or corrects weaknesses and is better prepared to deal with crises. That is the ap

Health committee  I just want to clarify. The national security policy was issued by the government in 2004. What we have is a Government of Canada coordination contingency plan for avian and pandemic influenza. I can table that. It covers how the government--the machinery--will deal with specific

Health committee  We are currently doing some adjustments. We have a work plan that focuses on the weaknesses we identified in the spring, and we are making improvements to it.

Health committee  What we have at the Department of Public Safety is the Government Operations Centre, and it was created by the national security policy in 2004.

Health committee  It is the Minister of Public Safety.

Health committee  It's probably me.

Health committee  The scenarios are multiple, and it would be easy to say it's the minister of this or the minister of that. It is very much aligned with the situation.

Health committee  We reviewed the plans of more than 80 departments and agencies. We know that those plans exist and that they have been improved. In our view, 90% of these plans are satisfactory and have been updated over the summer.