Canada considers sending disaster team to Haiti
Government officials and a military team of engineers, logistics officers and medical personnel arrived in Haiti on Tuesday night to assess the situation, said a government source.
Within a few days, they are expected to make a recommendation to the Privy Council Office, which will then decide whether to deploy the Disaster Assistance Response Team.
The team, which consists of about 200 members of the Canadian Forces, is on standby now and can be prepared to leave for Haiti on 12 hours notice.
DART was established in 1996 and consists of medical personnel and engineers. It's designed to provide basic medical care, safe drinking water and reliable communications in a disaster area.
The HMCS St. John's has already left for Haiti, while a reconnaissance team for DART is in the country, the Prime Minister's Office said in an e-mail.
More than 300 are dead and tens of thousands are homeless in the wake of a procession of hurricanes and tropical storms that devastated the country.
United Nations figures released Wednesday that indicate up to 800,000 people —10 per cent of the island's population — are in need of emergency assistance. The UN also appealed to the international community to provide $100 million for relief efforts in the impoverished country.
The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department announced Tuesday it will send $5 million worth of humanitarian aid to Haiti, adding to the $600,000 it contributed to Haitian relief efforts earlier in September.
DART has previously responded to a hurricane in Honduras in 1998, an earthquake in Turkey in 1999 and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.