Canada's Response to the Tsunami

I gather the overall response from Canada to the disaster in the Indian Ocean has been comparatively meagre. One reason has been that our gubmnt no longer has large transport planes at its disposal. Another explanation, according to Flit, is that whereas Canada used to take a FIFO (first-in, first-out) approach to world crises of any sort, we now take a LIFO (last-in, first-out) approach [to borrow jargon from the accounting profession]. We have cut our exposure to casualties and have reduced our expenditures with this policy shift. But as the Flit posting argues:

Unfortunately, as was commented on at the time, that mentality makes it now effectively impossible to deploy in natural disaster scenarios, as well. DART [DisAster Relief Team], an Eggleton "first-in" project, has atrophied to the point where it proved undeployable even to Haiti during the hurricanes last year. If all this makes you wonder how effective the CF [Canadian Forces] might be if that earthquake had been off of Vancouver Island, instead of Aceh, well, you probably should wonder. It's certainly not encouraging. Hopefully the Americans will have an aircraft carrier free then, too.

[thanks to JC for the link]
As an aside, I wonder what the personal giving in Canada has been like, compared with that in the U.S.