44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 24, 2021 02:00PM
- Nov/24/21 2:26:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is nice to see you in the chair and it is great to see MPs in their seats.
For more than a week, Canadians have been watching devastating images out of British Columbia as floods ravage Abbotsford, Hope and dozens of other communities. I want to recognize that the minister has been in regular contact with the federal government's response to these tragic floods.
Could the Prime Minister please update this House on the latest federal government efforts to deal with this disaster?
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- Nov/24/21 2:27:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Prime Minister and keep on the theme of standing up for people in British Columbia. The Coastal GasLink project has agreements with 20 indigenous communities in B.C. True reconciliation demands a plan for economic reconciliation, so that the next generation of indigenous children inherit opportunity and not trauma. This week, we have seen dog-whistle invitations to blow up projects like Coastal GasLink.
Why are Canadians waiting on the Prime Minister to release a real plan for economic reconciliation?
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- Nov/24/21 2:29:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadian inflation is at a 20-year high and 60% of Canadian parents are worried about putting food on the table. Monthly grocery bills have already gone up hundreds of dollars. The Speech from the Throne mentioned inflation once. It was mentioned just once.
Is the Prime Minister having trouble understanding the concerns of Canadian families, or does he just not care?
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- Nov/24/21 2:30:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, inflation in Canada is higher than ever, and 60% of Canadian families are worried about not being able to put food on the table. Grocery bills have already gone up hundreds of dollars, yet the throne speech mentioned inflation once—just once. Is the Prime Minister aware that there is an inflation crisis in Canada?
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- Nov/24/21 2:32:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, was there any mention of solutions for the economy? The labour shortage is real, but the Liberals are ignoring it. Quebec is full of signs that say, “we are hiring”, but the Prime Minister has no plan to address this problem. He obviously has no solution, because the labour shortage was not even mentioned once in the Speech from the Throne.
How does the Prime Minister justify to entrepreneurs and small businesses that he does not recognize the labour shortage problem in Canada?
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- Nov/24/21 9:23:51 p.m.
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Supply chains connected to the Port of Vancouver are blocked. Residents are wondering how they are going to get essential goods. The destruction is heartbreaking, and that is why we are here tonight.
Tonight I want to speak directly to British Columbians. I can only imagine the hardship that they and their families have been facing and will continue to face in rebuilding efforts. Although with the roads and railways they may have felt cut off from Canada, they should know that they will never be cut off from their friends and family in this great country.
Our country as a whole is here to support them because that is what it means to be Canadian. In times of trouble, we all come together. When people need help, we are there to serve. From the Lower Mainland to the Interior, when the highways turned to rivers, that is when we saw British Columbians step up with heroic action for their neighbours.
These are people like Henry Chillihitzia, who used a motorboat to lead 29 horses to safety in near-freezing and fast-moving flood waters in Merritt, and a helicopter pilot from Vancouver Island who sprung into action, delivering badly needed supplies in the Mainland before rescuing six people who were stuck in Hope. Cities like Kamloops and Kelowna have opened their doors to welcome hundreds if not thousands stranded in British Columbia. Communities have stepped up with heroic resilience, a resilience that Canadians have been known for at home and around the world. However, it is time that those families know that the rest of Canada is stepping up too.
The work of our Canadian Armed Forces, our first responders on the ground and civic workers has saved lives and protected property. However, the rebuilding effort will require significant federal support and a long-term plan and commitment. British Columbians need to know that Canada will be with them for the long term as they rebuild. They need a united country behind them to help them get back on their feet, and my commitment to them is that the Conservatives here in Ottawa will be a voice for them now and every day forward as we rebuild. We will ensure that no one is left behind and that they will get the support they need.
We know that one aspect of climate change is more frequent extreme weather. While we must work to lower emissions, we must also work to protect our communities and protect our economy by building resilient communities and dedicating specific infrastructure funding to adaptation efforts. The Conservatives campaigned on a plan to better prepare communities for the impacts of a changing climate. I spoke to Mayor Henry Braun in Abbotsford a few days ago. I want to thank Mayor Braun and civic leaders like him across B.C. for their leadership in this time of crisis.
Mayor Braun has told me, as other mayors have told my colleagues, about dikes that need rebuilding in Abbotsford, Agassiz, Hope and Kent. These communities need to know that there is a long-term commitment to resilient infrastructure. The Conservatives promised to develop and implement a national action plan on floods, including a residential high-risk flood insurance program so that Canadians can rebuild.
Our plan also included developing a national climate adaptation strategy, directly incorporating mitigation and adaptation lenses into all infrastructure projects. We also ran on and committed to appointing a national disaster resilience adviser to the Privy Council Office so that expertise is just down the hall from the prime minister whenever emergencies happen. For a government that is known for lots of talk and little action, I welcome the Liberals to steal any of our ideas as we need to rebuild British Columbia.
We will advocate for these important measures, and the Conservatives will be watching to make sure the government takes concrete action to protect the lives and livelihoods of Canadians. Let us work together to protect our country.
Thanks to the previous Conservative government's investments in the Canadian Armed Forces, our men and women in uniform have the capacity to carry out the mass movement of troops, supplies and equipment.
I want to thank the Minister of Public Safety for working with Conservative MPs and all MPs in our federal response. I respect that. However, the Liberal government also needs to be crystal clear when it comes to promises it makes to Canadians who are in crisis and are worried.
This past weekend, the Liberal minister was telling B.C. residents that they could cross the U.S. border to buy essential supplies without needing a COVID-19 test, but now we are hearing reports that flood-affected Canadians were fined over $5,000 for not taking the test before they returned home. British Columbians cannot afford this type of confusion, and I sincerely hope that the minister moves to correct this situation.
I am incredibly proud of my colleagues in the House from British Columbia who have been actively supporting their constituents and partner levels of government, including the members for Abbotsford and Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, and all of our MPs, including the MP for Chilliwack—Hope, who has remained on the ground to help coordinate efforts with our members here in Ottawa. Our entire B.C. team is here tonight and is working day and night to help those displaced and impacted.
As I said, I know that this is not just our side of the House. Indeed, all Canadians and all British Columbians need to know that we will be working for them. I thank everyone here in this emergency debate this evening for standing up for their fellow Canadians.
Let us be united in helping those who need it most. Let us make sure we protect people now and have long-term commitments to the economic rebuilding that will be required. Let us combat emissions and get them down while also making sure that adaptation efforts are under way with dikes, with flood mitigation and with emergency preparedness. Issues such as these should not be political. We need to make sure that the Prime Minister and Privy Council Office have the ability to rapidly address the needs of the nation and address the use of the Canadian Armed Forces, including with more direct army engineering capacity on the ground in British Columbia, something the province has really been deprived of since a Liberal government in the past closed CFB Chilliwack.
Let us make sure we build that capacity, we work together and we send a clear message to British Columbians tonight: We are here with them today, tomorrow and to the last day of the rebuilding because we need a strong British Columbia for a strong Canada.
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- Nov/24/21 9:23:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is very good to see you in the chair, the first Acadian deputy speaker. Congratulations.
Colleagues, I wish my first speech in the 44th Parliament was not on this topic. I will be splitting my time with the member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge. I want to thank him and our colleagues from British Columbia for bringing forward this emergency debate.
Over the last week and a half, Canadians have watched our families, our friends and our relatives in some cases fight devastating floods and landslides across British Columbia that have brought unspeakable devastation to communities in a province that was still recovering from the forest fires that took place over the course of the last year. I have been hearing some of the accounts first-hand from the British Columbian members of our caucus and of course from media reports. Families used kayaks, motorboats and canoes to reach safety. They watched their homes, farms and businesses literally become submerged by the flooding. Others spent nights in their cars on highways that were washed away or covered by trees and mud.
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- Nov/24/21 9:34:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Jonquière for his question. Unfortunately, he is using an emergency debate to play petty political games. We are here for the well-being of Canadians.
When it comes to climate change, we need to be better prepared for the future. We need to make historic investments to respond to the effects of climate change such as flooding, as we indicated in our political platform during the election campaign. We need to be better prepared for the future in order to respond to disasters such as floods and fires, and this includes having a leader in the Privy Council Office, which was also part of our political platform. It is time to work together and take action for Canadians in British Columbia.
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- Nov/24/21 9:36:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the way the member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay phrased the question in saying that we need more ambition reminds me of one of my major critiques of the Prime Minister and the Liberal government. They do not lack in ambition, nice tweets and trips abroad. What they lack is achievement. They never deliver on anything. They have long fired their person in charge of deliverology.
What we need is what the Conservatives ran on during the election: adaptation and resilient infrastructure investments. I agree with the member that for some smaller municipalities this is a very huge expense. As municipalities are a creation of the province, this is an area where I really do think the federal government and the provinces need to make sure that infrastructure funding specific to the impacts of climate change has federal and provincial leadership.
As I learned from my great discussion with Mayor Braun, the local governments can help set the priorities, but we have to be there not just to talk a good game but to deliver. The rebuilding efforts in B.C. will be some of the largest in our history. We have to show tonight that we will start and we will get the job done.
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- Nov/24/21 9:39:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for the question.
Perhaps he could go to British Columbia to see the effects of the flooding. He should get on a train today and go see the situation on the ground. Unfortunately, I understand the situation, and I am up to speed. The government has made a lot of announcements about climate change and investments in infrastructure, but there is no solid action. The difference between our team and the government is that we will deliver.
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