The Canadian government was asked to send medical workers. which for our country is different in terms of resources, structure and personnel as compared to the USA. Any call for these workers would most likely come from the public and private sector rather then the military. As there is no guarantee that any worker would not get infected with Ebola, and not be able to readily airlifted out, the government would not commit...and rightfully so. Those who volunteer are the probable same type of workers that would be asked by the government. However the difference being (and I will leave the politics out) is that these workers, if they get infected, it would be up to the aid agencies to arrange transport home.

This no different then any government when they are asked to respond to any disaster but do not commit people but other NGO agencies do send people. My wife who has spent a lot of time in Africa with various NGO's will attest to where an NGO would have to fly a person out for medical reasons (at a huge expense) without any government support. BTW, to date, my wife has not brought forth the discussion of her going to any of the affected African countries in a NGO role. I think she is very aware of what my response would be...

At one point, there were calls to send Canada's military DART team to one of the affected areas. Wisely the Government said no. The DART team is not really trained for this type of operation and IMHO, it would been a waste of resources and money for all. Perhaps in a post Ebola outbreak ending, DART could have a role, but not now.