A specialized urban search and rescue team from Vancouver will be joining the rescue efforts in Louisiana in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

B.C. Solicitor General John Les said the province decided to send Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) after officials in Louisiana asked for help.

"We're the first non-U.S.-based team to be requested," said Les. "They're going to be helping as many people as they can."

CTV Vancouver has learned that the team will board a plane Wednesday night heading to Lafayette, Louisiana, where local authorities will direct them to devastated areas.

Tim Armstrong, USAR's task force leader, said he's spoken with Louisiana authorities.

"The last conversation that I had with them, they're in a bit of a crisis management mode trying to figure out where the need for teams is, and where the resources are going to be best used," he said.

The 45- person team -- which was dispatched to Southeast Asia after the Boxing Day tsunami -- is equipped to provide emergency room doctors, building engineers and swift water rescue personnel.

Earlier Wednesday, Canadian officials said they're prepared to send whatever type of aid the U.S. needs.

"We want to reassure the president and the people of the United States that we are their best friends and their neighbour, and we will be there to help them in a situation that truly is without parallel in our country or theirs,'' said Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan.

She added that on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Human Health Services contacted Canada's public health agency, asking for an inventory of emergency supplies that Canada could send at a moment's notice.

That inventory was completed Wednesday.

McLellan said U.S. officials are still assessing their needs, but Canada will be prepared to send everything from water purification systems to the Canadian military's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).

Prime Minister Paul Martin was set to speak by phone Thursday with U.S. President George W. Bush about what Canada can do to help the reconstruction effort.

Elsewhere in Canada, Ontario is looking into whether its medical and hydro workers can help, and Premier Dalton McGuinty spoke to the U.S. ambassador to Canada asking what the province can do.

"We stand at the ready to assist,'' said McGuinty, who added Ontario could help with its Emergency Medical Assistance Team.

Relief efforts by Canadians in disaster zones are largely organized in Ottawa, but McGuinty said he wants to know from Ambassador David Wilkins what specifically Ontario can do.

Manitoba Premier Gary Doer said officials with Manitoba Hydro have also offered to send staff to the affected areas to help restore power.

Canadian Red Cross spokesperson Suzanne Charest said lists of volunteers experienced in large-scale disasters were being assembled.

"If you look at the impact of hurricane Katrina, we'll be sending well over 100 Canadian Red Cross workers in the coming weeks,'' Charest told Canadian Press from Ottawa.

Most of the volunteers will help spell off exhausted American relief workers in the coming months, she said.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's St. John Alexander