Funding to the Canadian Red Cross for ongoing COVID-19 response

Date: May 6, 2021

Classification: Unclassified

Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes

Branch/Agency: EMPB

Issue:

Recognizing the ongoing need for support to help manage the COVID-19 response, the Government of Canada is providing up to $170 million to the Canadian Red Cross to support its ongoing relief efforts.

Proposed Response:

Background:

In May 2020, the Government of Canada committed up to $100 million to help the Canadian Red Cross meet increased demand due to COVID-19, and to support future floods and wildfire relief efforts. An additional up to $70 million was announced in December 2020, to provide up to $35 million (announced in the Fall Economic Statement 2020) for Red Cross personnel to support Outbreak Crisis Management activities, and up to $35 million (transferred to Public Safety from Health Canada from its Safe Restart Agreement Funding) to support testing-related activities by the Red Cross COVID-19 Testing Assistance Response Teams (CTART). This funding is administered under the Government of Canada’s existing contribution program: the “Supporting the Canadian Red Cross’s Urgent Relief Efforts Related to COVID-19, Floods and Wildfires” program.

Beginning in June 2020, the Canadian Red Cross has been to support federal requests for assistance. This includes deployments in long-term care homes in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and most recently New Brunswick. It has also supported isolation sites in Windsor-Essex, Ontario for temporary foreign workers from across Southwestern Ontario and provided prevention and control support in Nunavut. More recently, it has provided health human resources to Ontario and support for vaccination in Prince Edward Island.

Through the Outbreak Crisis Management teams, the Red Cross continues to provide support in the areas of epidemic prevention and control, isolation site support, emergency care services in living environments, mental health and psychosocial support services, and health emergency response units. The COVID Testing Assistance Response Teams (CTART) funding will help the Red Cross to create and deploy more teams of clinical and non-clinical staff who will support logistics, distribute information, meet surge testing needs, and fill the gaps for targeted COVID-19 testing.

A request for federal assistance is how provincial and territorial governments formally request support from the Government of Canada in their emergency response efforts. Provincial and territorial governments make requests for federal assistance when an emergency event overwhelms, or threatens to overwhelm, their resources and help from the Government of Canada is needed to effectively support the response.

This surge support is made available when all other resources have been exhausted. Provinces and territories prioritize the needs of their municipalities and are responsible for formally requesting support from the Government of Canada. The federal government is responsible for assessing these requests and deciding where funding can be provided based on the greatest need, urgency and the capacity available.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of having surge capacity readily available. Typically, organizations like the Red Cross are largely dependent on event-specific private and public contributions. In response to this challenge, Fall Economic Statement 2020 also provides $150 million over two years, ($84.1 million in 2021-2022, and $65.9 million in 2022-2023), to support the 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. Public Safety and Health Canada officials are working to design and secure approvals for the program that will administer this funding.

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