Public Accounts committee  It's a very good question. I'm going to ask Troy Crosby to speak to it, as he works on NATO working groups that look at supply chains and materiel management. I would note that we are a unique country. We are a small armed forces, a small population and a vast geographic area t

Public Accounts committee  It is anticipated that the armed forces could well—and it has not been decided yet, but could well—be used for remote and rural communities. Certainly, transporting into the Arctic, for example, is something that the armed forces is very acquainted with doing and expert at. Do we

Public Accounts committee  General Cadieu can speak to that, having run operations domestically and overseas. We prioritize overseas operations where troops are deployed. When there are supply chain problems, they tend to affect domestic operations more with warehousing capabilities in bases and wings, as

Public Accounts committee  I'll ask General Cadieu. Not that I am aware of, but that doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't happened.

Public Accounts committee  I would be incorrect if I said that there was not a resource implication, because that will happen at the local level. Somebody will make a local decision to let something go to zero. That doesn't mean that it was an incorrect decision, and I'm certainly not casting aspersions on

Public Accounts committee  I'm going to ask Troy Crosby to weigh in on this question. At this point, while I want everything done more quickly so that we can provide the Armed Forces with what they need, and so that the department can fulfill its mandate to support the Canadian Armed Forces, what I'm very

Public Accounts committee  We need to work with the Public Health Agency and our colleagues around town to look at what the delivery mechanisms required for each of the various vaccines will be. That's working with the health experts, it's working with contracting experts in PSPC and it's working with our

Public Accounts committee  I'll ask General Cadieu to jump in. We will be ready when we're asked to be ready. There are multiple kinds of vaccine out there. Whatever the Canadian Armed Forces is asked to do, we will ensure that it's logistically and operationally possible. I don't actually think there is a

Public Accounts committee  I think the military will know the role its playing when it's asked to play a role. We haven't yet been asked to play a role in vaccine distribution. It's just like the long-term care facilities. That was a brand new operation for the Canadian Armed Forces. They went in. They d

Public Accounts committee  As General Cadieu said, it would be a combination of public and private distribution. It will not come into our supply chain. We would be a transport vehicle. We will help organize the logistics of bringing the vaccine into Canada through the lead at the Public Health Agency of C

Public Accounts committee  I'm going to respond, and then I'm going to turn to my colleagues. The answer is both complex and simple. It is a massive system. We move 26,000 types of items across 19 missions in 25 countries. There have been boutique solutions for particular problems across the Canadian Arme

Public Accounts committee  We haven't gotten into that kind of a request or discussion that I am aware of. We do have an RFP, or a request, out now on Canada Buyandsell to look at some storage capability, but that's for internal Canadian Armed Forces use when we get to the point of vaccinating our own troo

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, I don't know the name of the particular technology we use. I agree that a review of our supply chain system is well overdue. Leaving it for 20 years is far too long; technology has changed multiple times in that time frame. This is well overdue, and we will need to h

Public Accounts committee  We were aware that there were problems in the supply chain, and that's why a 10-year project was begun two years ago in order to rectify the problems and to look at automating the system. We have a new project, AIT, which is a bar-coding project in definition. We have been lookin

Public Accounts committee  I would say unequivocally, no. There is no impact on the ability to deliver vaccines should the Canadian Armed Forces be asked to do so.