24,000 troops on standby to help in fight against COVID-19

OTTAWA-Lt.-Col. James Stocker and more than 500 military personnel are assembled at the Canadian Forces base in Borden. Ready. Waiting.

The troops are among some 24,000 mustered across Canada to respond to provinces' calls for help to deal with COVID-19.

Just what their mission might be, they're not quite sure. The Canadian Armed Forces have rushed to help communities with floods and wildfires. But it's never been mobilized to handle a threat like the one confronting Canada right now, an invisible, deadly virus that has upended society.

"We have a very robust force package that is capable of a wide range of actions. Because we're not sure what the (request for assistance) will look like, our motto is readiness. We are ready to respond," Stocker, commanding officer of the 32 territorial battle group, told the Star.

"We could be seeing tasks to provide support to vulnerable communities, assisting provinces or municipalities with logistics or indeed providing humanitarian support or delivering supplies," he said.

The troops rolled into the base on Monday - spaced apart on buses and army trucks to respect physical distance protocols and were medically screened as they arrived.

As they await for a possible deployment, Stocker said they'll be training for potential scenarios they could be called on to help with, focused mostly on the virus but also assisting with flood control, another threat facing some communities this spring.

"That ask would come up from the civilian authorities and we would do our best to meet it. We are planning for assistance in logistics, construction and if needed humanitarian assistance," he said.

"We tailor our response specifically to the request for assistance that has been approved"we would move out in support of a civil agency and usually as part of a larger package that is put together by the government to respond to this crisis," he said.

With a fleet of nearly 100 vehicles at their disposal, they are able to deploy across the province and be entirely self-sufficient once they get there.

"Our intent is never to be a drain on local resources which may already be stressed by the crisis. When we roll into a community, our intent is typically to house ourselves, feed ourselves, fuel ourselves "and be there to assist that community," he said.

The Canadian Forces had a role in the country's early response to the virus. Its medical personnel escorted passengers being evacuated from China and returning travellers were quarantined in accommodations at the airbase in Trenton.

But the military was also preparing to be called upon here at home. It started weeks ago, when commanders cancelled vacations, limited troop rotations and put in place measures to protect personnel from catching the virus.

Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of defence staff, stepped up those measures in mid-March when transmission of the virus was becoming widespread, putting at risk the forces' own personnel.

More recently, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that reservists are being offered full-time status to help boost the ranks of regular force (and provide an economic boost at a time when unemployment has skyrocketed).

So how can the military help fight a virus?

Well, don't expect troops in the streets to enforce law and order. Military officials pour cold water on any suggestions that is being considered. Beyond the scofflaws flaunting orders for physical distancing, civil society is not breaking down.

But here's something more surprising. In a crisis that threatens to overwhelm health resources, don't count on the military to ride to the rescue with its own medical personnel and equipment. They just don't have enough of either, experts advise.

The U.S. military has deployed hospital ships to New York and California and set up field hospitals in cities. Don't expect to see similar scenes here.

"We don't have an equivalent of the U.S. hospital ships "and our military capacity is a lot smaller," said Dave Perry, vice-president and senior analyst at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

In Canada, the military medical branch is largely geared to supporting troops deployed overseas, such as ongoing operations in Ukraine and Middle East, Perry said.

"At home, there's a lot less medical support in uniform than people probably think because it's basically oriented around drawing on civilian providers," he said. "If they're riding to the rescue, it's not likely to be in the big urban areas," he said.

That was echoed by Ken Hansen, a retired commander in the Royal Canadian Navy, who said that budget cuts over the years have eroded the military's medical capabilities.

"They wanted to preserve the hard-end, sharp military capabilities," said Hansen, now a defence and security analyst with his own firm, Hansen Maritime Horizons.

"The military's tactical mindset leaves it vulnerable "they have a focused mindset and nothing else matters but ships, tanks and the airplanes," he said. "Everything got cut back to save money for operations."

The defence department does have the facilities that could be used to provide overflow capacity to house patients, including buildings that once served as full hospitals. "There's no reason they can't use the space," said Hansen.

He said this crisis should prompt the military to improve ways to provide medical services. One way to do it, he said, is through modules containing health facilities up to a full hospital that could be loaded on navy ships.

"If the military was going to be useful in the future, more useful than it is today, then the modularity provides a way to do it. You just load up and go," Hansen said.

The military declined to make anyone available to discuss its health services, saying only in a statement that the military personnel and equipment are ready to provide assistance "as required."

For this crisis, expect the military assistance - if called on - to come largely in the form of logistics, planning and engineering.

"The type of assistance that is provided depends on the request fielded by the province or municipality. "It can run the full gamut," said Richard Moreau, an expert in emergency management.

Moreau had a 25-year career in the forces and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was among the troops deployed to Toronto in 1999 after the city got hit by a series of snow storms. He was serving in the national defence command centre during the 9/11 terror attacks and the 2003 Kelowna wildfires and has seen firsthand how the military responds to domestic emergencies.

Today he is the director, emergency management Solutions with Calian Group Ltd., a Canadian company that among its diverse roles, provides training to the Canadian Forces.

Before the military can assist civilian agencies, a province or territory has to make a formal request to Ottawa, he said.

"They like to see the requesting agency articulate what capability they are looking for. Identify what services you need or what results you would like to see and (the defence department) will work it out what they have available. That's typically how the back and forth goes," he said.

The military is usually called in when the crisis has overwhelmed civilian resources.

"The (Canadian Forces) typically prefers to be looked at as the force of last resort. Let's try to use everything we have in the hopper first before we turn to the Canadian Armed Forces for assistance," he said.

Once the military gets involved, liaison officers will be deployed to emergency management organizations, federal departments and command centres. "Where they would be providing their expertise for planning, logistics, engineering, transportation," Moreau said.

"They bring a planning discipline and methodology, logistics expertise to manage larger-than-normal logistics, transportation, engineering issues," Moreau said.

One ideal role for the military in the virus crisis is to provide assistance to remote communities where sending in civilian personnel "only adds to the logistics nightmare," Moreau says.

Not so the military, which is like the ideal guest - in addition to the desired skill set, they bring everything else they need to sustain their operation.

"The CF deploy a package that is self-sustainable. They show up with those logistics, their own tents, feeding, so they are autonomous. They have their own transportation, their own equipment," Moreau said.

Perry echoes that sentiment, noting that isolated communities are a good way to utilize the military's limited medical resources.

"They are used to being able to provide not only the medical care but providing it in places where the transportation, the logistics, the support, all the communication and resupply, all of that other stuff is tricky," Perry told the Star.

"Places that are remote and inaccessible is probably where you potentially look to deploy them. But the ability to do that is fairly finite," he said.

Bruce Campion-Smith is an Ottawa-based reporter covering national politics. Follow him on Twitter: @yowflier