Canada is doing the only thing it can to protect Canadians from a possible flu pandemic -- stocking up on as much antiviral medication as possible.

That's according to federal Health Minister Tony Clement, who told CTV's Question Period the goal is to build a stockpile that is sufficient to cover every Canadian.

"That's all we can do right now. That's all anybody can do right now," Clement said. "There's no vaccine that exists in the world because we don't know the type of strain that we'll be facing."

The antiviral, which comes in the form of a pill, will be used to "bridge the gap," until a vaccine could be developed and produced, in the event of a pandemic, Clement said.

Canadian officials are working with their U.S. and Mexican counterparts in order to come up with a continental plan to deal with a pandemic, and efforts have also expanded outside of North America, Clement said.

"Recently, officials of mine attended a meeting in Vietnam where we're dealing with all the Asian countries and helping with expertise and surveillance techniques and so on. So you know, there really is a global community on this issue," Clement said.

Clement met with provincial and territorial health ministers in Toronto on Saturday, where he laid out his commitment to ensuring medication will be available to all Canadians who need it.

"To put it in plain words, our strategy when it comes to antivirals is whoever needs it, gets it," he said on Saturday. "There'll be enough for every single Canadian who needs treatment."

Clement estimated that the current stockpile of medication would be enough for about 25 per cent of the population.

During the Toronto meetings, health ministers from across the country discussed preparations for a worldwide outbreak of a deadly flu virus.

Clement said the ministers left the meeting with a better understanding of how to face a crisis and how to work together.

The group also developed a list of recommendations to prepare for an outbreak, including:

• Seeking authority to increase the national anti-viral stockpile from 16 million to 55 million doses.
• Finalizing a mutual assistance agreement to share health resources during an emergency.
• Developing a pan-Canadian communications strategy to help Canadians respond to a pandemic.

The meeting's co-host, New Brunswick Health Minister Brad Green, called cooperation between the jurisdictions essential during a crisis.

"Our ability to respond effectively and properly to a pandemic in the future is very much dependent upon what we (were) doing today," Green said Saturday.

"We have to ensure all segments of Canadian society are as ready as possible to meet the various challenges that accompany a pandemic outbreak."

The federal government is trying to get a head start in combating the unknown illness by working on vaccines before a pandemic occurs.

"We have the ability in Canada ... to cover the entire Canadian population once a vaccine is developed," Clement said.

"So one of the things that we're going to be doing is start on the prototype of the vaccine, but you have to wait until the mutation has occurred and the pandemic is in the human population before you can really finalize your vaccine."

In the recent federal budget the Conservative government committed up to $1 billion over the next five years for pandemic preparedness.

While there is work to be done, both politicians and health experts said there is no reason for Canadians to panic.

"Is it imminent? No. Is it possible? Absolutely, but no you should go to bed at night worrying about avian influenza unless you are a bird," said Dr. John Blatherwick, Vancouver's chief medical health officer.

With a report from CTV's Denelle Balfour