Ottawa, Ontario
The President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness, the Honourable Bill Blair, confirmed that the Government of Canada has approved a Request for Federal Assistance from the Province of Nova Scotia to help support their COVID-19 immunization program.
To help address the immediate and significant challenges the Nova Scotia health care system is currently facing, the Government of Canada will provide up to 24 Canadian Red Cross personnel, including up to 14 immunizers and up to 10 generalists, to the province. These resources will help establish a central vaccination clinic in Halifax with the capacity to administer up to 1,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses per day. In addition to getting shots in arms, they will help the clinic run smoothly, supporting site navigation and sanitization, safety and well-being duties, and post-vaccine observation.
The Red Cross deployment is funded by Public Safety's Humanitarian Workforce Program, which was established in Summer 2021, following the 2020 Fall Economic Statement. In the Fall Economic Statement, the government announced its intention to provide additional $150 million over two years, starting in 2021-22, to support the Canadian Red Cross and other non-governmental organizations in building and maintaining a humanitarian workforce to provide surge capacity in response to COVID-19 outbreaks and other large-scale emergencies.
The Government Operations Centre is working closely with federal and provincial partners to coordinate the federal response to the situation in Nova Scotia.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government Operations Centre has administered more than 150 requests for assistance from federal, provincial, and territorial partners. These requests have been administered in collaboration with federal organizations, including the Department of National Defence, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, and non-governmental partners, such as the Canadian Red Cross.
