…or they might have just had the wrong number in their official Canadian Navy Rolodex.
Either way, this sure doesn’t bode well for the smug Canadians who think only Americans—and American Presidents who are Republican—have government bureaucrats with vapor between their ears.
And whose head should roll, here, liberals? Please name names (of only Liberal Party people or Liberal Party appointees), and go ahead and have a huge, shrill, shrieking organized protest march with huge disparaging placards outside Parliament in Ottawa. Do call the media! Thanks. We’ll be waiting for that.
Oh yes and how secure are you that we in Canada are “prepared” for an emergency in, say, Vancouver (bigger than New Orleans), like after a big earthquake? Could we muster the nearly 50,000 National Guard to save Vancouver and the people there? Would the supplies depot be open that day? What if they were on strike?
Wires get crossed in Canada’s relief effort
Sailors can’t reach Ottawa for supplies; they called wrong number, officials sayChris Wattie and Adrian Humphreys
National Post
Saturday, September 10, 2005ABOARD HMCS TORONTO and TORONTO – An apparent breakdown in communications between federal emergency officials and the crew of Canadian navy ships en route to help victims of Hurricane Katrina left sailors scrambling to buy $1-million in relief supplies in Halifax stores rather than dipping into stockpiles of emergency gear.
Navy supply officers went on a shopping spree for everything from chainsaws to diaper cream in the four days before a Canadian task force sailed for the disaster area this week.
Navy personnel told the National Post that repeated calls to Public Security and Emergency Preparedness Canada went unanswered over the long weekend, meaning government supplies could not be accessed before the ship’s departure.
When supply officers called emergency officials in Ottawa, the officials were not available, said a senior officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“We were calling them all weekend,” the officer said. “All we got was voice mail … [and] they never called back.”
Approval from Ottawa was needed before emergency preparedness officials in Halifax would relinquish any of their stockpiled supplies, another senior officer said.
“They told us they couldn’t get the supplies together on the long weekend and that they needed approval from Ottawa.”
That left dockyard workers and the ships’ crews with only their ingenuity and Department of National Defence credit cards to rely on, raiding naval supply depots and running from one Halifax retailer to another trying to convince store owners to open their doors long enough to sell them what they needed.
Lieutenant (Navy) Kelly McNab, the supply officer on HMCS Toronto, said her crew had to work around the clock to buy and load tonnes of supplies into almost every available space on the ship.
“They were going to local stores and pulling stuff right off the shelves,” she said.
Officials in Ottawa, however, said the sailors must simply have been calling the wrong number.
“We have a government operations centre manned 24/7—and if someone had called that number we would have coordinated that effort, we would have been in a position to do so,” said Lia Quickert, a spokeswoman for Anne McLellan, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. “I can’t explain the alleged disconnect.”
Emergency Preparedness and Defence officials were working and available all weekend in Ottawa, officials said.
The Government of Canada Operations Centre staff includes three full-time Department of National Defence officers who were available, working and in “constant discussions” with Emergency Preparedness officials that weekend, said Major Luc Gaudet, a DND spokesman.
“I know because I was here all weekend too,” he said.
The problem of obtaining the relief supplies in Halifax was the only glitch in the quick deployment, officials said.
“It was a mobilization of 1,000 people in a very tight time frame,” said Alex Swann, spokesman for Ms. McLellan.
“It seemed to me the co-operation was quite good. I haven’t heard anything in terms of other issues or complaints or concerns,” said Steven Jurgutis, spokesman for Bill Graham, Minister of Defence.
[…]
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