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$80M in tsunami aid enough for now: Pettigrew
CTV.ca News Staff

The day after Ottawa announced a doubling of financial aid to tsunami victims and the imminent deployment of its disaster response team, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew says Canada is doing enough, for now.

"I do believe that we cover the (humanitarian) need at this time," Pettigrew told Canada AM on Monday, noting individual Canadians' donations of an estimated $38 million.

Pettigrew is one of three cabinet ministers headed to the tsunami-stricken region in the coming days.

International Cooperation Minister Aileen Carroll is also headed to Indonesia and Thailand, while Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh leaves on his own fact-finding mission Monday.

"Since India is the country I grew up in, I am interested to see what I can see," Dosanjh told CTV News, ahead of the trip that will also see him visit Sri Lanka on Friday.

Word of the ministerial missions came Sunday, as Prime Minister Paul Martin answered his critics with an expansion of the government's tsunami relief efforts. Included was an announcement the military's 200-member Disaster Assistance Response Team will likely take its field hospital and water-purification equipment to Sri Lanka.

In an interview from Kingston, Ontario, DART Deputy Commanding Officer Maj. Julia Atherly-Blight said the team's advance party could be headed to the region by the middle of this week.

"They could leave as soon as Wednesday, we anticipate," she told Canada AM. "However, the team is ready to go within very short notice and once a warning order is received... they will be able to depart."

Other new measures announced Sunday included:

A team of ten RCMP forensics experts will assist the victim identification process in Thailand
Canada's national stockpile of emergency supplies -- including 20,000 blankets, 40 electrical generators, and 1,000 water purification tablets -- will be made available
Canadians can claim charitable donations for tsunami-relief, made up until Jan. 11, on 2004 personal income tax returns
Existing applications for permanent resident visas will be fast-tracked for those family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents from the region, effective immediately
Martin also said a national memorial for tsunami victims will be held in Ottawa on Jan. 8, and that Canadian flags on federal buildings will be lowered to half-staff until then.

In the week since the massive quake sent a killer waves on a collision course with at least a dozen countries, Martin was criticized for continuing his Moroccan family holiday.

In a further effort to underscore the fact he's now back, the prime minister was in Markham, Ontario on Monday to visit a school-turned-makeshift information centre.

"It is a terrible thing to lose relatives," he told a crowd gathered at the Cedarwoods Public School, expressing his heartfelt sympathies to Canadian relatives of tsunami victims. "It is much more terrible to lose them so far away in a situation where you can't reach out and touch them."

Canada has already sent two planeloads of emergency supplies and placed a moratorium on debt from the affected countries. Also, officials promised last week to match, dollar-for-dollar, contributions made by Canadians until Jan. 11.

So far, five Canadians have been confirmed killed by tsunamis triggered by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake eight days ago. At least 150 Canadians are believed missing.

According to the Foreign Affairs Minister, because many Canadian travellers visit the area without the help of tour companies, confirming how many were actually there at the time of the disaster is very difficult. But it remains among his top priorities, he said.

"I will be going to Thailand where most of the Canadian citizens were at the moment of the tsunamis."

Although many relatives back in Canada fear the worst, reporter Steve Chao said it's unlikely the death toll will rise anytime soon.

"It's a very slow process as they try and match DNA with relatives," he said from the stricken Thai resort town of Phuket.

Ontario Commissioner of Emergency Management Dr. James Young, who is assisting victim identification efforts in Phuket, says DNA is an important forensic tool when fingerprints and dental impressions are no help.

"I think this will prove to be quite an important tool before we are done," he said.

Nova Scotia native Rebecca Clark is the latest confirmed Canadian victim.

A marine researcher, Clark had been in Thailand since early December, and was on the tiny island of Phra Thong, north of Phuket, when the tsunami struck.

Already cremated in a Buddhist ceremony, a memorial service for Clark is planned for Wednesday in Annapolis Royal.

Another Nova Scotian, Nicole Cox of Dartmouth, was swept from a beach in Khao Lak, Thailand.

The other Canadian victims identified so far include retired teacher Gilles Bouchard, 57, and Mathieu Lafond, 28, both of whom were Quebec residents killed in Thailand.

Foreign Affairs has said the tsunami claimed its fifth Canadian victim in Sri Lanka.

With files from CTV News, Canada AM and The Canadian Press

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