Japan: How well do you think the federal government is responding to the crisis in Japan?

About 200 Canadians registered with the embassy are in Sendai, northern Japan, where it snowed on Wednesday. Sendai is the area most affected by last week's massive earthquake. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada will not evacuate citizens from the country. (Kyodo News/Associated Press)

By CBC News

Canada will not evacuate citizens in Japan following last week's massive earthquake, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday.

"There continues to be large-scale, for the most part normal, commercial airline service from Japan, so if people want to leave they have that option," Harper said.

Canada has offered a range of services and supplies if the government of Japan needs them, including a 17-member victim-identification team, and chemical, biological, and nuclear technical expertise and equipment, according to a statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon's office.

The Canadian Forces are also willing to send personnel and planes to help with humanitarian relief efforts. Canada will only send in its Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) if Japan makes a formal request for it.

The DART unit is only sent to an area if the domestic government there makes a formal request for it.

"We're co-operating and collaborating with the Japanese government," Diane Ablonczy, minister of state for foreign affairs, told CBC News' Power & Politics Monday. "We just wait until they're ready for us to move ahead with some of the things that we've suggested."

There no plans for the government to match Canadian donations to Japan, Ablonczy said.

Foreign affairs officials are asking Canadians in Japan to register with the embassy in Tokyo.

Department officials estimate there are 11,000 Canadians in the country, though only 2,403 are registered. About 200 of these Canadians are registered in Sendai, the area most affected by the quake.

Foreign Affairs said Tuesday it was sending six consular specialists to the embassy as additional support.

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How well do you think the federal government is responding to the crisis in Japan? Should it take responsibility for evacuating Canadians from Japan?