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Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on Canada's Role in the Hurricane Katrina Aftermath

City Hall, Edmonton, Alberta
August 31, 2005

Anne McLellan: Thank you very much. Clearly just a few things right off the bat. First an expression of sympathy, condolences and concerns to our best friends and neighbours in the United States of America. Clearly this is a disaster of enormous proportions that I think it’s fair to say when I talk to my colleague Michael Chertoff, Secretary for Homeland Security on Monday afternoon none of us including Michael had any idea at that point of the magnitude of the disaster and the damage that has been unfolding over these past 48 hours.

The Prime Minister as you are probably aware issued a statement just a little while ago expressing to the President and the people of the United States our deep sympathy to those who have lost their lives and concern in relation to the ongoing situation. I think the enormity of the situation speaks to the fact that my colleague Michael Chertoff and FEMA, both Homeland Security and FEMA are working very closely right now to determine the best way to deploy resources, what the actual needs are. On Monday afternoon when I talked to Secretary Chertoff I offered any help, assistance that we could provide of any kind. Yesterday the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States contacted our Public Health Agency and asked the Agency to do an inventory of emergency supplies, that if they need them and that hasn’t been determined yet, but if they need them we could send them in a moment’s notice. That inventory is being conveyed now to the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington.

Later today General Hillier is going to be talking to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Myers and offering any available assistance from the military. You’re probably aware that there are going to be and there are right now even some very big challenges around clean water. So General Hillier is going to be talking to General Myers about whether they want any of our water purification equipment, other forms of emergency supplies. Clearly the [US Army] Corp of Engineers has been on the ground, the US Army Corp of Engineers has been on the ground trying to deal with the breaches in the levies.

They have obviously not been as successful as they would have liked in terms of stopping the breaches, although they’re I think perhaps things are improving just a little bit in, but it's too soon to tell. General Hillier will be offering to General Myers engineering expertise from our military. Any available services, goods, supplies at this point that either Homeland Security or FEMA think they need we will provide and we will provide at a moment’s notice.

Question: What kind of inventory are you talking about with the public health service, what kinds of things?

Anne McLellan: Well emergency supplies, drugs, everything from say a mobile emergency medical hospital to drugs, other kinds of things that people would need in this kind of situation. Again if there is a real shortage of clean water that could create a host of health problems and clearly people want to be on top of this. So far other than for the request from Health and Human Services we have not received direct request for specific aid or information in terms of what we could send if they need it. But at this point I think what we want to do is reassure the United States, the President and the people of the United States that we are their best friend and their neighbour and we will be there to do whatever we can to help them in a situation that truly I think is without parallel as far as anyone can tell in either our country or theirs.

Question: What is the situation for the DART team?

Anne McLellan: We could send, it’s possible and clearly that’s one of the things that General Hillier will be talking to General Myers about later today. The water purification part is one part of DART. DART does other things obviously. It’s multifaceted. But one of the parts that we saw work really effectively in the aftermath of the tsunami in Sri Lanka was the water purification. So quite clearly if they want DART, either the water purification component or the entire team, I believe it’s something like 48 hours notice we will be able to deploy them.

Question: When they will know what they need?

Anne McLellan: Well as you can imagine this is a huge mobilization exercise. The United States of America is a large country with large resources, human and other kinds. And part of the challenge right now because of the enormity of the disaster is figuring out the deployment plan, how you actually take the resources you’ve got and you deploy them to help those most in need and then also at the same time identify where the gaps are. And where you don’t have resources or more likely where you’re simply stretched, where you’re going to run out, or you don’t have enough of something like perhaps the means to purify water. And that is all happening now and you may have noticed my colleague Michael Chertoff earlier today held a press conference in which he talked to Americans about how they are mobilizing.

And of course FEMA which is the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the United States has, they have practised for this, not perhaps this exact disaster but they always knew that New Orleans because of its placement below water level would have particular challenges if a hurricane or other kind of disaster struck. They are, they’ve got their plans, they are trying to mobilize and get the resources to the places of most need. And what we want to do is make sure they understand that whatever it is they need that we will be there and we can also as General Hillier will indicate to General Myers, we can deploy human resources if for example they want our army engineers or other things.

And if for example they need medical assistance such as our experience in SARS we are in a position if requested to deploy various kinds of health professionals. Obviously the Red Cross has been called upon to provide assistance. We, the Red Cross will be sending some hundreds of volunteers to work in their emergency relief centres and sending people who are well trained and who understand both the trauma of this situation and how important it is to be able to get the information from the individuals to their families and try and obviously start to make the transition for them from this horrible tragedy to some sense of normalcy, although it’s hard to think about that right now in the middle of this situation.

Question: Is the Canadian government concerned, obviously we’re going to be, we’re being hit by higher oil prices as a result of this. Is the Canadian government concerned about what that might mean to the average Canadian and to our economy?

Anne McLellan: Well I think that the increase in oil prices is separate and apart from what has happened in the gulf and the gulf states, has been an issue of comment. And quite clearly as the price per barrel of oil continues to increase, input costs as it relates to oil will increase. We see at the pumps. I think one of the things that we are going to experience and we’ve already started to experience this is the fact that the refineries in the gulf states that were hit are shut down. And refining capacity in the United States is at a premium. You know I don’t think it’s a case of a shortage of oil as such, but you’ve got to take the raw product and you’ve got to refine it. And right now there is, it would appear, because of this storm a shortage of refining capacity in the gulf states and that will have an impact.

ut I think right now we need to focus on is if you like the human tragedies here. You listen to the mayor of New Orleans talk about evacuating an entire city, moving over 600,000 people. So a city as vibrant and full of life as New Orleans basically becomes a ghost town for some period of time, we need to focus is in terms of making sure everybody who can be saved is saved. That they are safe, that their health conditions are safe. And that the clean up can begin.

Question: So won’t this result in perhaps inflation here in Canada? Could that not affect our economy because of this happening in the US?

Anne McLellan: There’s no question that higher oil prices have an effect on the economy, both good and bad. I think at this point we simply have to live with the reality that right now refining capacity is limited due to this natural disaster. We will, we will move on from there. We will feel it at the pumps I’m sure. And yes, the economy will feel it, but to date the economy has been able to absorb higher oil prices. So I don’t think at this point we should be either unduly alarmed about that or focussed particularly on that point. I think we need to focus on the human dimension of this natural disaster which is at this point, stabilizing a highly unstable situation and making sure everyone is safe and getting on with the clean up.

Question: And are you saying that the federal government isn’t planning to really take any action to alleviate the price increase at the pumps?

Anne McLellan: Well in fact the price, the retail price at the pumps is a matter of provincial jurisdiction. There are a couple of provinces, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island who presently have retail gas price wars. I think other provinces for whatever reason have not chosen to go that way. But certainly if anybody wants to fix the retail price of gas at the pumps that’s a provincial jurisdiction, not federal.

Question: Someone suggested the federal gas tax?

Anne McLellan: Well we’re giving, we’re giving five cents of the gas tax back directly to cities like this one and communities all over this country. I think that is of enormous benefit to everyone. Both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have indicated that they will monitor the situation. The Prime Minister, when we were in Regina last week, indicated that the Competition Bureau will continue to review this situation as it has many times before. There’s no evidence of price fixing. But certainly the Competition Bureau will watch the situation. But right now clearly yes, there are economic impacts of this disaster. But I do think we really need to focus on the social and the human impact of this natural disaster.

Question: The US is obviously much richer than Canada. What could Canada possibly [do]?

Anne McLellan: Well I’m not sure what you mean by much richer. I mean they’re a larger country, yes. They have more people, they generate more economic output because of that, they’re a larger country. But in terms of richness, in terms of our ability to respond to disasters, what we had learned from situations of our own in this country, in terms of whether it is a natural disaster, the fires in the Okanagan, Hurricane Juan, SARS, we have learned a lot at all levels of government in terms of how we deploy our resources, where they can be best used, how you mobilize people from across the country to come together and help a population in distress. The supplies, the services that are needed in situations of disaster.

So it’s not so much that we have some magic answer or resource that the United States doesn’t have. Nobody would suggest that. It is the magnitude of this disaster. It is so great that for example, water purification, they may simply not have enough equipment to purify enough water quickly enough. Therefore if we can be of assistance we will be. The same thing with their [US] Corp of Army Engineers. If they need a backup, if they need the expertise that our engineers have to supplement their own, our guys work with the United States as a team better than anyone in the world.

So that there are lots of things that we can do in terms of helping them either in the deployment of their resources or stretching their resources or backfilling for them as they move resources into a disaster area and we can backfill perhaps in another area to assist them. So I think at this time we’re just all watching and waiting in the sense of we are in constant [contact], my government operations centre is in hourly contact with Homeland Security and FEMA. We, I think everybody in the United States from the President on down is aware of our offer to help. And it is there, it is an outstanding and as soon as any request is made we will respond.

Question: Do you have any idea how long it will take Public Health to do a drug inventory?

Anne McLellan: It’s largely done and in fact that information, some of it has already been conveyed to the Department of Human and Health Services in the United States and the rest of it will be done very quickly.

Question: Do we have extras? What [supplies]?

Anne McLellan: At this point, we have emergency stockpiles across the country. Those are not called upon for use right now. If we need to, we can redeploy those stockpiles. And we have stockpiles in Ottawa as well. Again we’ve learned a lot from an event like SARS in terms of where you deploy your emergency stockpiles, what you have stockpiled in the national capital for deployment. Those things can be easily moved to an area of disaster.

Question: Do you know what kinds of things that are stockpiled that they may need?

Anne McLellan: For example drugs. It could be a mobile emergency unit. Those kinds of things.

Question: A drug for anything specifically that you know of or...?

Anne McLellan: Well a whole range of drugs that you would expect to find in emergency situations. For example the whole question of the spread of infection and disease. Thanks very much.

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