[1] DART was created by the Canadian government in 1996 in the aftermath of the inadequate response to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when Canada's aid arrived after the peak of a cholera epidemic.
The government determined that it would be of the utmost importance in many disasters if it was able to rapidly deploy a group of people until long-term aid arrived.
For example, Operation Torrent, the aid mission to Turkey in the wake of the 1999 earthquake which left 17,000 people dead, saw CA$15 million used by DART in the response.
Furthermore, although it does align with Canada's foreign policy of the three Ds (defence, diplomacy, and development) it does not help with the global health inequity.
Because there were many isolated communities that were connected only by then-broken roads and bridges, DART was supported by four CH-146 Griffon helicopters from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa.
During this mission, DART personnel assisted in cleaning up a school, restoring electricity and designing and constructing a tented camp which could hold 2,500 people.
Sri Lanka suffered tremendously as a result of the earthquake, the Canadian government stated that their relief efforts were to be concentrated there.
It also provided primary medical care, some special engineering capabilities, and communications between DART, Sri Lanka and other relief organizations.
This is apparent from the fact that they do not have trauma surgeons, SAR assets, firefighters or other professionals who would be of critical importance during the very first days after a disaster.
[3] On October 14, three days after a nine-member Canadian delegation left to assess the situation, Prime Minister Paul Martin announced that DART would be going to the Muzaffarabad region of Pakistan.
It is suggested that rapidly deploying human resources in order for health to reach victims in the shortest possible time would have been the most efficient and most cost-effective form of response.
[7] Following an initial assessment and relief work near Port-au-Prince, the DART team began to concentrate their efforts on the area surrounding Jacmel on January 18, 2010.
On April 26, 2015, DART deployed 200 personnel to assist with the engineering, medical aid and mapping in Nepal after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck.