44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 26, 2022 11:00AM
- Sep/26/22 2:23:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, P.E.I. potato farmers were already suffering because of the self-imposed export ban. Now they may have lost another year's crop. Dairy farmers out east are without electricity, meaning they might lose livestock. Fishers are losing boats, wharves and other critical infrastructure.
Traditional bureaucratic government programs are very slow to respond. What will the government do to speed up a response to help those who feed all of us get back on their feet?
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- Sep/26/22 3:28:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues and the House today for the interesting questions around hurricane Fiona. Having been there for the last two days and perhaps in one of the most hard-hit areas, I stand here humbly before the House to ask permission for an emergency debate.
We all know very clearly that hurricane Fiona has been devastating to Atlantic Canada. We also know that it is, as my good colleague from South Shore—St. Margarets once said, a generational storm. For that reason, we know that it needs to be debated here in the House on an emergency basis. We know that infrastructure has been severely damaged, including roads, power lines, wharves, barns, homes, crops, etc., and that importance cannot be underscored without a significant and robust debate here in the House of Commons.
I would also say that the fishing industry, which was previously under threat by significant cost due to bait and fuel, is now in significant peril due to the destruction of said infrastructure.
Atlantic Canadians and Canadians in general also want to understand clearly the rapidity and the extent and the process that will be involved for them to gain the support they so dearly need. We shall overcome this, of course. However, without robust debate here in the House of Commons, people will not know exactly what will happen in the next steps.
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- Sep/26/22 8:15:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question in French. It is much appreciated.
We will certainly fight alongside him to ensure that the government steps up and helps those affected by the devastating effects of hurricane Fiona.
However, what I would like to see from the Conservative members is a commitment to helping the government implement measures so we can adapt to climate change. This is not just about dealing with what happened this weekend, but also about preparing for the future and preventing the effects of climate change, which could be increasingly devastating.
Given the winds and waves that hit the Magdalen Islands, I can say that the shorelines took a hit and that investments in resilient infrastructure will be required. This is needed not just in the Magdalen Islands, but throughout the country.
I am counting on my colleague to fight with us on this issue.
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- Sep/26/22 8:16:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to correct the record. My hon. colleague articulated that the Government of Canada had no strategy or plan to deal with climate-resilient infrastructure. Respectfully, I just do not think that is indeed the case. The program would be the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund. It is a multi-billion-dollar fund that works directly with provinces or municipal governments to deliver federal dollars to meet local concerns and needs.
The member opposite, of course, sits in a sovereignist party that often talks about jurisdiction and making sure that we devolve those decisions to local government. Here is one example of the Government of Canada doing exactly that, and I did not hear her recognize that in her remarks. I am wondering if she could comment.
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- Sep/26/22 8:18:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about the vital telecommunications and other infrastructure losses, as well as the need to proactively move on the energy transition, so my question is about the energy transition. What does the Bloc feel is the barrier for the government to start moving on the energy transition and stop investing in fossil fuel expansion projects?
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- Sep/26/22 10:19:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to follow on that theme of the long term. Will the government be there to help the people of Atlantic Canada in the long term?
We have seen data that, right now, we spend about $5 billion a year in Canada fixing the problems of climate and weather events across this country. Every year, that is $5 billion. The federal government puts up about a tenth of that. Yes, Atlantic Canada gets storms every year, but they are becoming harder, faster and more devastating. It is predicted that, by 2050, we will be spending $50 billion a year. We could get ahead of that if we invested in the long term in some of these things that would make our shorelines more impervious to storms. Where I come from in British Columbia, we can make our rivers less likely to flood urban areas and make our forests less likely to burn cities down.
Could the member comment on this need for investing in the future to save us money in the future, save lives, save infrastructure and save homes by making those investments ahead of these disasters, instead of always reacting?
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- Sep/26/22 10:21:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his thoughtful question and reflection. Absolutely, I think it is pertinent that the government invest strategically in our region. Part of that is key infrastructure investments into our wharves to make sure that they are sustainable. For years, they have been in need of investment, and our wharves are going to need extreme investment over the next few weeks and months to make sure that the critical infrastructure is put back in place for our fish harvesters, their families and the communities that rely upon on them, so that they are prepared with better infrastructure in place to respond to any kind of storm that may come in the future.
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- Sep/26/22 10:21:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I did not miss church on Sunday, but I am still glad I heard that.
If we think about the kinds of investments we will need for the storms of the future, my friend from South Okanagan—West Kootenay pointed out where we are headed. We are at 1.2°C global average temperature increase right now, versus what it was before the beginning of the industrial revolution. With every fraction of a degree of warming, we face worse storms. We are really looking at trying to save lives because, at every fraction of a degree, millions more people are going to be at risk. There is going to be a level of climate change that we can adapt to, but we are getting really close to a level of climate change to which we cannot adapt anymore.
Does my hon. colleague think we can step back and have a hard look at this? What can we adapt to? What kinds of wharves, bridges and infrastructure can withstand what we can see coming at 1.2°C and 1.4°C, but not 1.5°C and certainly not 2°C? How do we hang on to a livable climate, the one God made for us?
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- Sep/26/22 10:49:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to serve with the member for Charlottetown on the Standing Committee on Health, and I appreciate his actions there.
One of the things that certainly holds true, as we have heard from most of the Atlantic provinces today, and it is always interesting to hear, is how similar we are and how the great resilience of the people from Atlantic Canada certainly stands out in all of our minds. As I said previously, hopefully it is not just us patting ourselves on the back.
That being said, I think it is important to underscore, and I think we are all at the point that we need to realize, that cellphone service is part of critical infrastructure. We also know, and we have heard in this House previously, that former minister Ralph Goodale promised during Dorian that the CRTC would fix this. We know that has not happened.
I wonder how the member opposite is going to prod his government to ensure that this piece of critical infrastructure is better suited to serving the needs of all of our constituents.
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- Sep/26/22 11:07:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we need to be able to do both: adaptation and mitigation. We need to be able to do that, recognizing challenges coastal areas face, but we also have urgent and critical needs around the rebuilding of wharfs and other coastal resources that our local industry and communities depend on.
We have had many hurricanes and other storms in the past that have caused damage from time to time, and one of the things we have to do to get industry, small business and communities back on their feet and individuals working again is make sure we have the right investments in community infrastructure that we can move forward and build together. That is something we are committed to helping our communities do, and we will stand with them every step of the way.
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- Sep/26/22 11:22:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course it makes sense to have resilient infrastructure, infrastructure that is fit for purpose and that can respond to these things as much as possible.
I am not an engineer. There are probably limits to one's ability to build for all possible events, but I would assent in principle to the idea that we should as much as possible, in the process of rebuilding and in the process of building up infrastructure, try to be prepared for and resilient against the possibility of storms and other kinds of weather events.
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- Sep/26/22 11:36:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with my colleague, who I sit with on the fisheries committee. Our government has added $600 million additional to the budget of small craft harbours. It is still a drop in the bucket. Successive governments have cut the A-base funding to a level, and it is still the same, of $100 million for capital across the country. Quite frankly, it is not even a band-aid.
I agree this is a wake-up call on infrastructure. Somebody made the comment, and I am not sure who it was, that if this was a section of the Trans-Canada Highway in an area near a municipality, it would be fixed within a number of days. I agree with that comment. We should be able to react in that swift of a fashion to repair small craft harbours and bring them up to a standard where they will not sustain the damage they did. We know these hurricanes are coming.
I support the member very much, and I will be curious to see how my government responds to that in a very positive way by putting the resources needed to build this infrastructure up to a level to sustain the storms we know are coming.
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- Sep/26/22 11:55:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is apropos given the last debate we were having about the fixed link. I was actually in the minister of the environment's office when we signed off on that being the first piece of infrastructure that adapted to climate change, because it was built for a one-metre sea level rise.
We need to stop taking our attention off an issue once it is no longer in the front pages, and we need to find a place where we get the money. I respectfully suggest that given the profiteering by big oil right now from the profits they get from the war in Ukraine, we should double their tax for one year, from 15% to 30%. That would generate $8 billion that we could dedicate to making sure we protect communities and help them rebuild.
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