Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday Canada's massive relief effort in earthquake-ravaged Haiti is evidence that the country is now a "major actor" when it comes to offering aid to victims of natural disasters.
Harper addressed Canadian soldiers in the town of Leogane on the second day of a two-day visit to Haiti to survey the damage from the Jan. 12 quake and meet Canadians working in the country.
In his speech, Harper said the fact that newly purchased C-17 transport planes were able to ferry personnel and supplies to Haiti immediately after the quake, justified his government's decisions to beef up Canada's military.
"The entire planet has been able to witness that Canada is now a major actor when it's time to intervene in natural disasters," Harper said after touring the rubble of a collapsed school.
"Everyone saw that Canada has the equipment, the know-how, the capacity, and the personnel to intervene quickly and efficiently.
"And Canada now has a considerable advantage -- a fleet of C-17s. Thanks to this multi-purpose airplane, Canada no longer has to hitch-hike its way to foreign deployments."
After spending Monday night sleeping aboard HMCS Athabaskan, which is anchored off of Leogane, Harper also spent part of Tuesday visiting the coastal city of Jacmel, the ancestral homeland of Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean.
Harper visited a medical facility run by the Canadian Forces, talking with soldiers and patients alike. He also sampled water from a purification system set up by the troops.
CTV's Daniele Hamamdjian, who is travelling with the prime minister, said the Canadian field hospital the group visited on Tuesday in Leogane treats 130 to 150 patients per day.
"Today was really an assessment of the work that has been done and the kind of work that still needs to be done," Hamamdjian told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel. "The purpose of this trip was to see for himself the damage."
Harper is the first leader of a major G20 donor country to visit since the quake. A second G20 leader -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- is due to arrive in Haiti on Wednesday. It will be the first time that a French leader has visited.
On Monday, Harper announced that Canada would contribute $12 million to set up a temporary centre for the Haitian government to house departments that are currently homeless.
The magnitude 7.0 quake struck on Jan. 12, destroying infrastructure in the capital of Port-au-Prince and across much of the country.
Since then it has been difficult, if not impossible, for most government departments to function after the presidential palace and a number of government ministries collapsed.
Some ministries have set up temporarily in a police station, but Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive asked the Canadian government for assistance to re-establish dedicated space for government offices.
Hamamdjian said the prime minister and accompanying media flew from Jacmel to Leogane -- a trip which offered a startling perspective on the country.
"It is unbelievable to see the damage from the air, to see the pockets of tent cities that are now all over the place. You can really tell there's no one living in their homes anymore, everyone is living in tents or outside their homes," she said.
The earthquake left 1.2 million homeless and caused a massive humanitarian crisis that experts say has gradually improved.
However, with the rainy season fast approaching, relief workers say they are in a race against time to establish more permanent shelter for the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the disaster. Many are living in shelters cobbled together with cardboard, plastic and string.
During his Tuesday speech, Harper said when soldiers, government workers and politicians sign up to serve their country, they don't expect to witness firsthand such heartbreaking scenes.
"I think we all have something in common today," Harper said. "When we chose a career in public service, in service of our country, none of us expected to see such a catastrophic scene.
"I know a lot of you have been to Afghanistan. Some of you have been in the Balkans. Some of you have been to places where, for most people, mere survival is the highest human aspiration.
"You have seen a thousand faces of human misery. But nothing could prepare you for what is all around you here. In just a few minutes, an earthquake of overwhelming destructiveness threw down vast numbers of buildings, and caused unimaginable distress, injury and death."
