Canada doubles tsunami aid to $80 million

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:12 am

Good stuff! Hopefully it will go up. We think we have problems with mad cow until we realize other countrys' problems.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...hub=CTVNewsAt11

CTV.ca News Staff

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Canada was doubling its aid to tsunami-ravaged countries to $80 million after a meeting with cabinet Sunday.

He also announced that Canada's 200-member disaster team known as DART would likely be deployed to tsunami-ravaged areas in southeast Asia upon word from a Canadian reconnaissance team.

Confirmation from the team is expected Monday after they receive an aerial tour of the region to survey the damage.

DART offers services such as water purification, mobile field hospitals, command and control centres and some reconstruction.

New measures outlined by Martin include the following:

* Donations: Canadians may claim donations made up until Jan. 11, on their 2004 tax return
* Supplies: Ottawa is making emergency supplies from its national stockpile available to these regions. The supplies include: 20,000 blankets, 40 electrical generators, and 1,000 water purification tablets.
* Forensics: An additional 10 forensic experts will be sent to Thailand to help with the identification process.
* Immigration: Effective immediately, existing applications for permanent resident visas will be fast-tracked for those family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents from the region.
* Memorial: On Jan. 8 there will be a national memorial held in Ottawa for tsunami victims. Until then, all Canadian flags on federal buildings will be lowered to half-staff effective 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday.

Martin's Sunday announcement came after meetings with senior cabinet ministers and diplomats from the hardest-hit countries, including Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia.

At least three ministers -- Defence Minister Bill Graham, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll -- were in Ottawa for the meeting.

Western ministers, including Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, dialed in to the session by telephone.

Diplomats from devastated countries, such as India and Thailand, thanked the Canadian people for their help after Martin's announcement.

Criticism of Canadian response time

Government critics were quick to say that Martin and other federal government officials stayed on vacation for much too long and delayed Ottawa's response to the disaster.

Martin rejected these claims and said he had a travelling office set up on his vacation in Morocco.

"I had a full set-up. As soon as this event took place, I was on the phone directing the situation in Canada or on the phone with other world leaders," he said.

He said he didn't take the government jet to come home because he was able to coordinate the Canadian effort on vacation.

Martin arrived back in Ottawa late Saturday after cutting short his Christmas vacation in Morocco, about a week after the earthquake and tsunamis ravaged coasts along the Indian Ocean.

Earlier Sunday, Graham rejected criticism that Ottawa's response was bogged down in bureaucratic infrastructure while senior officials vacationed abroad.

"I was in contact with the prime minister and with Aileen Carroll and Pierre Pettigrew as the week went on, and we had a very good team with officials meeting here around the clock, so the government was functioning as you know," Graham told CTV's Question Period.

Graham said the expensive cost of sending the DART team was one of the reasons delaying its deployment. He added that the team could not be sent without a go-ahead from the local governments.

"Also, the other factor is the complication of putting 200 people on the ground in a foreign country and making sure they want them there and you know where you're going to go when you get there," he said.

Canadian aid is already on its way

Canada has already sent two planeloads of emergency supplies and had pledged $40 million in aid, as well as placing a moratorium on debt from the affected countries.

Last week officials promised to match, dollar-for-dollar, contributions made by Canadians until Jan. 11. Canadians have so far donated at least $36 million, Martin said Sunday.

Meanwhile, the first Canadian plane has already landed in Sri Lanka and the second is expected to touch down on Sunday.

But if Canadian troops are going to be deployed, it could be weeks before they hit the ground.

"Other countries can get here quicker because they're quite simply closer," said Lt.-Col. Mike Voith.

CTV's Murray Oliver reported Sunday that the Canadian presence on the ground is minimal and survivors were wondering why.

When Indonesians find out where he is from, they ask him where the Canadian help is, he said.

"Certainly, there are teams from a lot of other countries here, but so far, no Canadians," he said from Banda Aceh.

With files from Canadian Press

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OLKMED · Post by **OLKMED** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 9:55 pm

is there any word on the US tsunami aid money? i don't even know how i would donate.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 10:50 pm

Suposely everyone is mad at the US because they spend more in iraq every hour then the total of what they donated. When I first heard the number (80M or something) I was impressed and said "glad they did it dispute their budget issues" but if they spend that much per hour in iraq then woah... they should give 80Billion instead and send troops there instead of iraq. (to clean up/help/etc, not to fight lol)

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OLKMED · Post by **OLKMED** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:28 pm

yeah i read somewhere that Bush gave 10k or something like that from his personal stash, which may seem like a bunch but it's really toenail clippings to him because he's dirty filthy rich already.

and i figured how much money we spent in those first few hours bombing iraq one time and figured out how many corvettes you could buy with that, it was well over 5000 i remember

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:56 pm

That's nuts.

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:01 am

Red Squirrel wrote: Suposely everyone is mad at the US because they spend more in iraq every hour then the total of what they donated. When I first heard the number (80M or something) I was impressed and said "glad they did it dispute their budget issues" but if they spend that much per hour in iraq then woah... they should give 80Billion instead and send troops there instead of iraq. (to clean up/help/etc, not to fight lol)

Last time I checked, the aid money was up to $350M and that was at least a couple days ago. And there are troops helping out with the relief effort.

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MrSelf · Post by **MrSelf** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 1:42 pm

The ideology of the Republican party dictates that the government gives little to others, personal donations are the way to go. They have stuck with this theory and it has worked, charity through personal donations.

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Delvok · Post by **Delvok** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:08 pm

That's still kinda peanuts to canada, 80 million isn't that much to the canadian government, but with all the relief efforts from all the seperate countries we're bound to at least help a little bit.....

Right???

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:42 pm

Yeah, at least I hope! I just sent 170 bucks to the goverment, I hope a good portion of it went towards the relief efforts.

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 6:06 pm

MrSelf wrote: The ideology of the Republican party dictates that the government gives little to others, personal donations are the way to go. They have stuck with this theory and it has worked, charity through personal donations.

Yes. I'm sure there is sizeable aid coming from NGOs.

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 3:05 pm

I laughed the other night when I heard Jon Stewart say that the $15 million that the United States initially pledged to help with tsunami relief effort is equivilant to the amount of money that our country spent on the movie Spanglish.

Who? Us "stingy?" No!

Why is it that the funniest comedy is the most plainly spoken truth one can hear?

Red Squirrel wrote: Suposely everyone is mad at the US because they spend more in iraq every hour then the total of what they donated. When I first heard the number (80M or something) I was impressed and said "glad they did it dispute their budget issues" but if they spend that much per hour in iraq then woah... they should give 80Billion instead and send troops there instead of iraq. (to clean up/help/etc, not to fight lol)

Anyone hear about Richard Clark's recent article in the Atlantic Monthly??? I was listening to him talk about it the other day and it sounded like it kinda dealt with what you're talking about Red. It's supposed to take place in the year 2011, ten years after 9/11 and talking about how many things we could have done right or done differently if we were not involved in this unwinnable conflict in Iraq. More security at home. Actually apprehending Al Qaida and Bin Laden. The amazing amount of additional funding we could provide to things like the tsunami effort... It really makes you think. We're going to be wasting lives and wasting money in Iraq for the next ten, twenty, probably fifty years, and the only thing that is going to result from it, is likely a civil war more blood shed.

I guess I was just curious if anyone had heard anything about the article or read it. It sounded very interesting.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 3:46 pm

Yeah I don't get this war anymore. When bush won, I was thinking he would plan on stopping the war, but nope... I just wonder what's going through his mind right now.

Sad part about this is that it does give a bad image for the US. But I'm sure most US citizens are against this war right now.

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 3:57 pm

Red Squirrel wrote: Yeah I don't get this war anymore. When bush won, I was thinking he would plan on stopping the war, but nope... I just wonder what's going through his mind right now.

If I had a nickel for every time I've said that in the last four years...

Red Squirrel wrote: Sad part about this is that it does give a bad image for the US. But I'm sure most US citizens are against this war right now.

Unfortunately Red, Nov. 2 told us a completely different story.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 4:23 pm

Yeah true. But Kerry was a nutcase too so it was a tough decision.

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sintekk · Post by **sintekk** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 4:38 pm

Red Squirrel wrote: Yeah true. But Kerry was a nutcase too so it was a tough decision.

It's quite obvious he was the lesser nutcase

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 4:44 pm

Yeah, he could't make up his mind, but at least that made it so it's a 50/50 chance that the war is stopped, instead of a 0/0 chance.

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shenbaw · Post by **shenbaw** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 5:33 pm

sintekk wrote:
Red Squirrel wrote: Yeah true. But Kerry was a nutcase too so it was a tough decision.
It's quite obvious he was the lesser nutcase

Quite obvious.

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000 · Post by **000** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 1:03 am

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