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KATRINA: Transcript of Ambassador McKenna speaking on Hurricane Katrina and Canadian Aid

Source: New York Station: WNYC-FM
Program: All Things Considered
Date: September 7, 2005
Transcription prepared by Bowdens Media Monitoring Limited exclusively for DFAIT

MELISSA BLOCK (WNYC): So now we know what it feels like to be a country that receives foreign aid.

ROBERT SIEGEL (WNYC): In addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars raised for relief inside the U.S., more than 40 nations, and several international organizations, have contacted the State Department with offers of assistance.

BLOCK: According to State the big cash donors are the Persian Gulf oil states of Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Each has offered a $100 million. And Kuwait's throwing in $400 million worth of oil.

SIEGEL: But there are a lot of countries less well-heeled and perhaps equally generous given the size of their treasuries.

BLOCK: Cypress, Mongolia, the Bahamas and Djibouti are each sending $50,000.

SIEGEL: Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives are giving us $25,000.

BLOCK: And Bosnia-Herzegovina is sending $6414.

SIEGEL: And that's just the cash. There are also the search and rescue teams from Finland and Israel, the tents and tarps and the 150 relief workers from France, the forensics experts from Thailand and Germany. The list goes on and on, and it is expected to get longer.

BLOCK: Some of the most generous donors are neighbours.

SIEGEL: Canada is offering helicopters, medical supplies and more. Frank McKenna is Canada's ambassador to the United States. He says the government in Ottawa has said to Washington it is ready to supply anything that's needed.

FRANK MCKENNA (Canada's Ambassador to the United States): That's included... frigates, destroyers, Coast Guard vessels loaded with supplies. It includes navy divers, Red Cross personnel. It includes urban search and rescue people. It includes cots and blankets and our own emergency... our own domestic emergency stockpile of health and safety materials have all been sent down.

SIEGEL: And these things have actually moved down the pipeline, and there are things in the area hit by Katrina?

MCKENNA: Oh immediately our urban search and rescue team of 45 people from Vancouver has been there and gone. They were there within... the very early days. And our Red Cross people... Air Canada's had a plane down there ferrying people back and forth to San Antonia.

SIEGEL: For many Americans the past couple of weeks have been a time not only of crisis and tragedy, but for those of us far from the storm, for many it's been a time of some embarrassment at the inability to cope a little bit more effectively with what has happened. I just wonder when Canadians follow accounts of what has happened in Louisiana or Mississippi this past week, what do they see?

MCKENNA: Canadians aren't judgemental about the way in which this crisis has been managed. They just see a people, neighbours, and very close friends, who are suffering, and they've extended the hand of friendship and support and will, all the way through to the end.

SIEGEL: One other very important dimension to the U.S.-Canadian relationship involves energy and oil.

MCKENNA: Yes.

SIEGEL: Canada is a major oil supplier to the United States.

MCKENNA: We're your largest energy supplier. We're bigger than any other country in the world, including Saudi Arabia, whether it's oil or gas or uranium or hydro power, and one of the other things that we've done is turn the taps right to the firewalls. Everything is running in Canada to try to get energy to you, as you need it. We're trying to get maintenance put off that was scheduled on refineries. We're squeezing every drop of fuel that we can through the pipelines to make sure that we do our share to help you in this time of need.

SIEGEL: Well Ambassador McKenna, in more than one way, thank you very much.

MCKENNA: Thank you.

SIEGEL: Frank McKenna is the Canadian ambassador to the United States.