October 14, 2005
Ottawa, Ontario
Prime Minister Paul Martin announced today that the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) will be deployed to the earthquake affected area of Pakistan. This decision follows an assessment and evaluation made by the team of experts from Foreign Affairs Canada, the Canadian International Development Agency and National Defence.
"This deployment will provide added value in response to the current crisis. Canada will act as quickly as possible to deploy the DART to help those in need," said the Prime Minister. "Coordination among relief agencies and with the Government of Pakistan are proceeding smoothly and I join the United Nations Secretary-General in calling on all donors to continue to support these efforts. This is a complicated relief operation, and it will be essential that we all ensure we are contributing to an effective overall response."
The DART will support existing medical infrastructure by augmenting medical staff and providing potable water. Details pertaining to the exact location of the DART will follow as a DART advance team arrives to clarify the technical elements of the mission.
On October 11, following a request from the Government of Pakistan, the Government of Canada deployed an evaluation and assessment team to Pakistan with the task of working with relevant authorities and international agencies to identify intermediate actions that Canada could take in support of relief and recovery efforts, including the possibility of deploying Canadian Forces assets such as the DART. The team has been in-country for the last forty-eight hours. They visited by helicopter some of the affected areas in Pakistan and met with a range of senior government and international organizations officials.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, National Defence Minister Bill Graham and International Cooperation Minister Aileen Carroll have indicated their support of the Assessment team’s recommendation to the Prime Minister.
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