The former general tasked with overseeing and executing the vaccine rollout for Ontario said Friday while he may not control when the vaccines come, the province will be ready for the logistical challenge.
"I'm not an over-the-top optimist, I'm a pragmatic person, but we're going to be ready in 31 December for what the people of Ontario will need from us," Rick Hillier said Friday at Queen's Park.
The former head of the Canadian Armed Forces and NATO-led forces in the Afghanistan War said the operation is about aligning distribution, education, transportation and tracking.
"In the military, we've operated all of our lives with the unknown, and so what we do is we plan for the worst case, plan for everything arriving on the 1st of January, if you can handle that, you can handle anything," he said.
Hillier has recruited other former military members to assist him in the rollout and said they hope to hit certain milestones in the next few days and weeks, such as potentially figuring out vaccination sites.
The comments come after the latest meeting between the premiers and the prime minister, and while Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Ottawa couldn't give exact details yet on when, how much and what kind of vaccines will be arriving at this point, he does trust the process.
"I'm going to take the prime minister for his word, he's mentioned stuff in the past and he's pull through, but I can't emphasize enough to the prime minister, the clock is ticking," he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier in the day that the government is working as quickly as it can on securing vaccines and approvals.
"If all goes according to plan, we should be able to have the majority of Canadians vaccinated by next September," he said.
Health Canada's Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma said while each vaccine candidate has to be approved, she suspects that could happen before Christmas, meaning high-priority groups - such as seniors and health care staff - could start getting vaccinated over the first three months of the year.
But there's a number of complications, including getting vaccinated twice and storing the vaccine at cold enough temperatures, prompting the federal government to purchase special freezers.
Another part of Hillier's challenge is the logistics of shipping and flying the vaccine to the vulnerable groups that need it initially, but reaching those groups around the province.
He said however that in bringing former military officials with him that a lot of ground work has already been done.
"When you say 31 December, you kind of want to be ready by Christmas Eve, because Christmas to New Year's, is always a bit more challenging no matter how dedicated you are in getting ready," he said.
While the vaccines aren't being produced in Canada, Ford said he's discussed with Ontario's business and manufacturing sector the possibility of provincial companies assisting.
"There's co-packers out there in industries or companies that will bottle items or manufacture items for other people, that's what I'm encouraging them to do," he said.
Earlier this week, the Ontario Government said it expects the first phase of the vaccine rollout to reach 1.2 million people.
As for former NATO commander Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, tapped to lead the national immunization plan, his ex-colleague had nothing but glowing words.
"He's an excellent leader, we are lucky as a nation to have him," Hillier said.