US embassy cable - 05OTTAWA2677

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 002677 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAN; WHA/EPSC; R 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/06/2015 
TAGS: PREL, ECON, AEMR, ASEC, CASC, MARR, AMGT, US, CA 
SUBJECT: TFUS01 - CANADA:  AMBASSADOR JOINS PRIME MINISTER 
IN SEEING OFF FOUR CANADIAN SHIPS 
 
REF: A. STATE 163279 
 
     B. STATE 164132 
     C. OTTAWA 2669 
 
Classified By: Ambassador David Wilkins for reasons l.b. and c. 
 
1. (U)   Ambassador Wilkins thanked Prime Minister Martin 
privately and Canadians publicly for their support to victims 
of Katrina at a ceremony in Halifax seeing off  the four 
Canadian ships deploying for the Gulf of Mexico with relief 
supplies.  Along with CG Halifax, US Naval Attache and DCM, 
they visited briefly each ship, spoke with crew members 
before making comments in front of national media on the 
final ship, the flag ship for this operation.  Martin,s 
comments reinforced Canadian,s view of themselves as "a 
country built on neighbor helping neighbor."  Ambassador 
Wilkins, comments about Canada helping "early and eagerly... 
giving us your best when we need it the most" were carried 
live across Canada and much appreciated by Martin and his 
accompanying staff.   Ambassador,s open letter to Canada, 
thanking them, played in newspapers across Canada on the day 
after this visit. 
 
2.  (U)  This operation, more than anything, was about speed. 
 Last Thursday Chief of Defence Staff Hillier told Ambassador 
that Canada had decided to deploy ships to the Gulf.  Working 
throughout the weekend to load water bottles, construction 
supplies, diapers, and other donated equipment, the crew was 
still loading on one ship during the tour, preparing to 
depart just one hour later.  (This was not an easy feat as 
Nova Scotia remains the only province in the country where 
stores are closed on Sundays, so they had to get special 
dispensation to open up a few key stores for these supplies.) 
 Volunteers came forward so that on one ship with 239 bunks, 
there were 239 sailors, many from other ships eager to join 
this Mission who spoke about the support given to them in 
Halifax from the U.S. two years ago after Hurricane Juan hit 
them.  This was Canada,s first opportunity to deploy 
following their much-criticized delays last January to 
support tsunami relief; we happen to be the beneficiaries of 
their lessons learned and not repeated at all this time. 
 
3.  (C) The Canadians are deploying over 1000 men from all 
their services on three navy and one Coast Guard vessels. 
According to our Embassy Naval attach present on this visit, 
this is a major commitment, stretching this small navy to 
their limits.  They cannot afford to have another incident 
which would require another deployment.  Canadian forces also 
have deployed their Fleet Diving Units and Army Combat Diving 
Unit, consisting of a total of 32 divers who are embedded 
with U.S. Navy diving units and performing underwater 
obstacle clearance and  levee inspections. 
 
4.  (C)  It was late Sunday when Prime Minister Martin 
invited Ambassador Wilkins to join him in Halifax.  Martin 
used the plane ride coming and going as well as several other 
opportunities to cover the political ground in both 
countries, to discuss the impact in both human and political 
terms of Katrina, and to explore ideas on the most burning 
issue prior to the disaster: softwood lumber.  He pressed 
hard on the need to respect NAFTA, saying that our failure to 
abide by this agreement has damaged our reputation as a 
reliable partner in Canada.  Ambassador acknowledged the 
importance of the issue and stressed the need to find a way 
to get back to the negotiating table.  Martin, who insisted 
on not discussing this directly in last week,s telephone 
conversation with President Bush (sought long before 
Katrina), asked for Ambassador,s advice on timing of a 
subsequent call.  "We still need to have this conversation," 
was the way he put it. 
 
5.  (C)  Comment:   We, like the Canadians, will not link 
Katrina with softwood.  The images of the hurricane, though, 
here have turned a public mood of anger and frustration into 
one of universal sympathy, sorrow, and eagerness to help. 
The Prime Minister,s Communications Director was blunt when 
he said there was no political risk to helping us in this 
climate; in fact there would have been risk if they had 
waited to help us.  He later indicated in reviewing political 
issues for this autumn that softwood and the U.S. response 
looms large.  Our acknowledgement of their support, in public 
as the Secretary did in her statement over the weekend, plays 
huge here and reassures Canadian self-perceptions.  Our 
willingness to engage on softwood at an appropriate time will 
also play huge. 
 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
WILKINS