The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) will assist the government in developing a plan to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine to Canadians, said Major General Trevor Cadieu, the head of Strategic Joint Staff, on Monday.
“The Canadian Armed Forces is assisting with the development of a logistics support plan for the role of the vaccine. We're helping to establish a national operation centre that will oversee distribution of the vaccine,” Cadieu told the parliamentary committee on national defence on Monday, adding that the Chief of Defence Staff will advise on the efficient use of the CAF resources to roll out the vaccines in the weeks or months to come.
Besides that, Cadieu said the CAF is continuing to strengthen its stockpile of personal protective equipment and is developing ways to reduce the risk of community transmission during their operations.
The CAF is also working closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada in the rolling out of COVID-19 vaccines. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus causes the disease COVID-19, which emerged from mainland China last year.
“The armed forces remain poised to do our part alongside other government departments, partners and Canadians. We have liaison officers working in support of other government departments in order to streamline communication. We are integral to all government contingency planning, and we maintain a robust ready force comprising sea, land and air force elements.”
When asked if Canada is able to defend itself from adversaries given the amount of CAF resources that have been deployed to the COVID-19 response, Cadieu said the military is ready to respond to any potential external threats.
“It is absolutely essential that while we continue to support Canadians throughout this pandemic, that with the residual capacity that we have, we maintain our force generation, our training activities for operations abroad, so that no potential adversaries can take advantage of that,” he said.
