Honourable senators, I am honoured to rise today to express my deep appreciation to every member of the Canadian Armed Forces who has been helping to support communities across Canada as they grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Members of our Canadian Armed Forces have been integral to the first-response effort, particularly through the irreplaceable assistance they have provided in long-term care facilities across the country. Starting in April, members of the armed forces supported civilian authorities in such facilities in both Quebec and Ontario. They worked with medical staff to ensure staff were available to help our most vulnerable citizens. Undoubtedly, some of the people they helped were veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces themselves.

Without operational and medical-care support, there is little question that many of our long-term care facilities would simply have been overwhelmed. Of several thousand military personnel deployed to assist in those facilities, 55 personnel themselves contracted COVID-19. We can be thankful that all of those soldiers recovered and none required hospitalization. Their efforts are a testimony to their bravery and to their deep commitment to help their fellow Canadians.

In other parts of Canada, local response forces have been contributing to community-level efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their own communities. In more remote regions of Canada, the Canadian Rangers have been mobilized to help communities with wellness checks, the transportation and distribution of needed supplies and staffing command posts and emergency centres. The Rangers have performed this invaluable service in Saskatchewan, northern Ontario, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, British Columbia and in Yukon.

In my own province of Manitoba, the armed forces recently provided a multi-purpose, medical-assistance team to support the Rod McGillivary Memorial Care Home in the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in The Pas. That team supported the personal care home with immediate medical care and with broader support related to the functioning of the facility.

All of this support has been essential in dozens of long-term care facilities across the country. These efforts have literally meant the difference between life and death.

Now, our armed forces are helping Canada’s Public Health Agency to finalize its vaccine distribution plan. The Canadian Armed Forces are providing their expertise to develop the logistics support plan and to establish the national operations centre that will oversee the distribution of the vaccine.

To every member of the Canadian Armed Forces who has assisted in protecting Canadians over these many months, I say thank you. Once again, you have more than lived up to your proud motto, “We stand on guard for thee.”