Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is imploring Canadians that are in Lebanon to heed the government's now week-long warning to come home and won't say if Canada is prepared to airlift citizens out at the government's expense.
"It is time," Joly said, sending a message to Canadians in Lebanon while speaking with reporters from Abu Dhabi on Monday.
Since Oct. 15, the Canadian government has been warning of the deteriorating security situation as fighting between Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and Israel intensifies.
Fearing a spillover of the Israel-Gaza war, the federal government issued an "avoid all travel" advisory for Lebanon and has called on the 16,481 Canadians registered in that country to get on a plane and get out, or at least ensure they have all their requisite travel documents at the ready.
On Friday, Global Affairs Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces officials indicated planning is underway for potential evacuation operations, seeing a rapid deployment team dispatched to the region and military officers stationed in Lebanon and Cyprus.
Asked Monday if the Canadian government is prepared to launch, and pay for flights to get thousands of citizens out, Joly wouldn't say.
"My message to Canadians in Lebanon is first: you need to come home. This is time to leave. And I've been saying that for many days," Joly said. "But my message is the same: there are still commercial options available. Canadians should get out."
This warning comes just as Canada is set to end its evacuation flights out of Tel Aviv. Over the course of 19 flights — the last taking off from Israel's Ben Gurion airport to Athens on Monday — the Canadian Armed Forces have airlifted more than 1,600 citizens and their families out of the region.
For the Canadians that took these flights — conducted on CC-150 Polaris aircrafts that seat around 150 — the military covered the cost of the trip to Greece, but from there, passengers were on the hook for their onward travel costs, which included an option to board Air Canada flights to Toronto.
2006 EVACUATION 'WAS A SCRAMBLE'
The rare assisted departure operation out of Israel — albeit likely smaller in scale given the number of citizens airlifted — may offer a glimpse of what could be ahead if the situation in Lebanon worsens.
So, too, does Canada's July 2006 evacuations out of Lebanon. Amid Hezbollah-Israeli fighting, the federal government evacuated approximately 14,370 citizens out of Lebanon at a total cost of $94 million at the time.
Before the situation deteriorated then, 11,000 Canadians had registered with the embassy, though that quickly grew to 39,100 at the height of the crisis, with estimates of up to 50,000 Canadians in the country at the time.
According to in the aftermath of the massive effort, 14,370 people had been evacuated by Canada. These individuals were moved on 34 sea transportation departures to holding centres in Cyprus and Turkey.
From there, they were transported by air to Canada, on 61 chartered flights and four additional flights on aircraft belonging to the Department of National Defence.
"We remember well our previous experience in 2006," Defence Minister Bill Blair, who was not the defence minister at the time, told reporters on Parliament Hill on Monday. "We are working in preparation and planning for what may be required of us ... In the event of future developments, we're making sure we're doing the work now to get ready."
Blair said the current government and the military are looking at all options, including sealifts. If pursued, this evacuation may end up being the largest in Canadian history.
"It was a very, very challenging exercise, to say the least," said Peter MacKay, who, as foreign minister at the time, was the Conservative government's lead on the 2006 mission.
In an interview on CTV's Power Play with Vassy Kapelos, MacKay recalled his past experience as "a scramble," given the suddenness of that conflict's eruption and some additional complexities with blockades and airspace closures.
In the current instance, the Canadian government has been communicating the need to leave for more than a week.
"The fact that the minister has been to the region, the fact that there is professional public servants, ambassadors and their staffs on the ground, that as well, I think, is a particular key ingredient to all of the moving parts that are involved in an anticipated evacuation such as this," MacKay said.
MPs on the House Foreign Affairs and International Development Committee received a closed-door briefing from senior government immigration and foreign affairs officials on the situation in Israel and Gaza on Monday. It's possible the current situation in Lebanon was discussed, as it has come up at all recent public updates on the conflict in the region and Canada's consular capacity.
While Canada's Israel evacuations are now nearly wound down, and planning continues for Lebanon, Joly said Canada and other countries remains unable to get their citizens out of Gaza despite initial convoys of aid being able to get in.
The minister met with embassy staff in Cairo over the weekend, where preparations are being made to welcome evacuees from Gaza, should the time come.
