44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 13, 2023 10:00AM
- Jun/13/23 10:35:54 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite's speech was very personal and compelling. I cannot imagine there is a member of the House who does not feel the same way about this being a crisis and about the need to work on it. This applies to constituents in my area as well.
However, attacking municipalities and saying it is all their fault is not the correct way to go either, in my opinion. We do, for the first time, have a national housing strategy. Part of that is a housing accelerator fund and a rapid housing initiative, working in concert with the municipalities. Often I hear across the way, and from many people, that this is about jurisdiction. Certainly in Alberta and Quebec, we are not to interfere with anything the provinces have jurisdiction over.
I noted in your speech that you talked about your concern that Alberta does not have rent control. Are you advocating for the federal government to get involved in provincial jurisdiction in Alberta, for example, to ensure that there is rent control for people like yourself and others who are facing rental property rent increases?
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- Jun/13/23 6:32:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in my previous eight minutes yesterday, I unpacked some challenges with what the Liberals are proposing and why I believe that what is more or less a sunset clause, which the opposition House leader has proposed, is vitally important to this discussion.
I would like to conclude my remarks on this by emphasizing something that I believe is causing an erosion of the democratic institutions in this country. We see a growing disconnect between the executive branch of government in Canada and the legislative branch. I bring this up because it is foundational to what makes Canada distinct as a Westminster federal state.
Unlike our counterparts in the United States and unlike other republics around the world, our executive branch of government is represented by a Prime Minister, the first minister among what are supposed to be equals, although that tradition has long since gone away. The government is also represented by the cabinet in the front bench, who are members of the Privy Council. We have seen a growing disconnect between what happens in this place and what conduct is decided upon when it comes to how government operates. This is especially concerning because in our nation, this is the only institution, with senators who are elected from Alberta being the small exception, on a national level where Canadians get to choose who represents them.
In conclusion, I urge all members of this House to think about that, and specifically Liberal members, who seem intent on seeing the disconnect expand between the executive and legislative branches of government. The ultimate result is that it will break the very foundation of what our democracy is supposed to be.
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- Jun/13/23 7:41:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to join the debate today on amendments to the Standing Orders. I am very pleased to represent the people of Edmonton West. I am actually the ninth MP representing the riding called Edmonton West since the First World War, in 1917. At that time, Edmonton West actually took up one-third of the entire province of Alberta. Now, West Edmonton Mall actually takes up about one-third of the size of Alberta.
The area has been served by various distinguished MPs over the years. In 1917, the MP's last name was Griesbach, and one of our ridings is named after him right now. William Griesbach was an MP for Edmonton West.
We had MP James MacKinnon, who served as MP during the Second World War. Unfortunately, he died in office, which is hopefully a precedent I will not repeat.
Marcel Lambert, who served after the war, was the longest-serving MP in Edmonton West. He served about 28 years. He was a World War II veteran; he landed at Dieppe, was captured there and spent three and a half years in a prisoner of war camp before liberation. He ended up being elected and served as Speaker of the House. We can see his painting in the hallway, the gallery of speakers' portraits. He was the minister of veterans affairs.
As well, serving the area was the Hon. Rona Ambrose, who served as our party leader for a while. Also serving part of Edmonton West, but at the time it overlapped what is now Edmonton West, was a friend of mine, Laurie Hawn, who was an MP for 10 years. Laurie was the very first Royal Canadian Air Force pilot to fly the CF-18, and then he served here for 10 years. Before I ran, he always provided lots of advice for me, but he told me that the best part of being an MP is serving people, and the worst part is the travel. Both are right.
I am blessed in that I inherited Laurie Hawn's staff, Oula Sanduga and Linda Lo, who still work with me today. They are amazing ladies, who have incredible empathy and who know everything about helping people. On my very first day in our office, we were able to help a new Canadian who had to have some paperwork finalized that day; otherwise, he would have lost out on his planned surgery the next day. It was a young boy getting cleft palate surgery. Our office was able to help him.
Laurie was right: The best part is helping other people, and the worst part is the travel. I bring that up because it relates to what I am going to get into about the Standing Order changes, and the main part, which is the hybrid Parliament.
We have all heard about, and we have all experienced, the horrors of airline travel in Canada, especially recently. There has been lost luggage. We have all had missed flights. I have had missed flights and delays; I have gotten stuck in the wrong cities. I thank Air Canada and West Jet. Part of the problem is that we have a near-duopoly, and that allows Air Canada and West Jet to treat Canadians the way they do, which is not very well.
The thing is that I knew about this in advance. The huge majority of us knew about that before we got into this role. We knew that travel was bad. We knew it was part of the job. We accepted that when we ran. Just as we knew that helping people would be the high of the job, we knew that travel would be the low of the job.
It is funny to sit here in the House and hear members talk about how the travel is bad now. It has always been a bad part of the job. To claim that, all of a sudden, it is bad, but it was not bad in 2015, 2019 or 2020 before COVID, strikes me as a bit dishonest, to be blunt. It is almost as if some members showed up here and were shocked to find out that coming to Ottawa 26 weeks a year is part of the job; therefore, they want to mail it in through a hybrid process.
It was bad before, but it was worse for poor Mr. Griesbach, who had to come out by train in 1917. It has been proven that it is still bad now. What has changed, of course, is the access to Zoom. Zoom is very convenient, I admit, but just because Zoom is available and convenient for members of Parliament does not mean it is something we should switch to as a matter of hand. I do not think it is good for democracy or for the health of this place. My preference would obviously be to not have a permanent hybrid process, as the government and the NDP enablers are suggesting.
In 2015, we heard from the government, and we heard earlier today, that we want to make it family-friendly. I always find in this place that whenever the government talks about reforming Parliament to make it family-friendly, it is a code word that means, “We're going to take away accountability. We're going to take away powers to hold us to account from the opposition.”
I want to talk about the main problem that I see with a hybrid Parliament, which is the accountability issue. Many times, we have seen elected officials, bureaucrats, show up only by Zoom in committee. A couple of months ago, on the public accounts committee, which I am also a member of, we had 13 witnesses from the public service. Every single one of them was based in Ottawa. Every single one of them decided it was too much to come in person to the public accounts meeting; it was too much to show Canadians respect by showing up in person. Every single one of them Zoomed in. We heard them with delays because of problems with mikes, computers not working and bad sound. Here we had a very important public accounts committee trying to seek answers on behalf of Canadian taxpayers, and we had 13 public servants who did not show up.
We have had committees where ministers would only attend by Zoom. We see Liberal MPs showing up in committees, and I recognize their backdrop, because they are in the Confederation Building. However, they cannot come to West Block downstairs to join the committee.
The reality is that the opposition members, including the Bloc and the NDP, are here to hold the government to account. The Liberal members who are not in the cabinet and are not in the government are here to represent their constituents. That is why we are here. To switch to a hybrid Parliament takes away that accountability for us to hold the government to account; it takes away the accountability of the Liberal members when it comes to serving their constituents here in Ottawa.
Canadians deserve more than just having a minister Zoom in their appearance to committee. They deserve more, they need more, than just having public service bureaucrats, officials, Zoom in to committees. They should be there in person.
We have a hybrid-driven lack of resources in this place right now. Yes, we are sitting late, but even before we started sitting late, we were running out of resources. We are losing committees because of burnout of our translators. We do not have enough translators, and we do not have enough people to run the committees so we can operate.
In the operations and estimates committee, also known as OGGO, or as I call it, “the mighty OGGO, the only committee that matters”, since May 3, we have had three committees cancelled. In just a month and a half, three committees have been cancelled because of a lack of resources.
On May 3, we had the President of the Treasury Board set to appear to defend the main estimates. A lot of people at home, all five of them watching on CPAC and all five of them in the House right now, are probably unaware, but the estimates are why Parliament exists. It goes back to 1295 and the model parliament, where Edward said, “What touches all should be approved by all”. That is the basis of what our Parliament is: the approval of spending, raising taxes and spending them, which is the estimates process. However, here we have the President of the Treasury Board, representing the government's billions of dollars of spending, and we have to cancel the meeting that she was to attend. The Conservatives, Bloc, NDP and even Liberal members were deprived of the opportunity to question the President of the Treasury Board on the main estimates. What touches all should be approved by all, unless one is in a hybrid Parliament in Canada. In that case, things get cancelled, and the money just gets approved without oversight.
On May 10, also on the estimates process, we were to have two departments come in, but the meeting was cancelled because of a lack of resources, and this lack was driven by the demands of hybrid Parliament. There were two departments. We had Defence Construction Canada, a small side department that does not get in the news much. However, it is the only department I have ever seen noted by the Auditor General as specifically at risk for fraud. I have done public accounts for years, off and on, and I have done the operations estimates for eight years.
Billions of dollars of taxpayer money is at risk. The Auditor General notes that it is at risk of fraud, and the meeting was cancelled. MPs were not able to question the departments on what they are doing to address the Auditor General's concerns, because of a lack of resources driven by hybrid.
At the same meeting, the Transportation Safety Board was supposed to come before OGGO to explain its estimates request. The Transportation Safety Board is as it sounds. It is the safety board that ensures the safety of air, marine and pipelines, and it reports publicly. If Canadians want to freak out, they should google the watch-lists for the Transportation Safety Board.
The Transportation Safety Board was supposed to come before us, and it has several times. We always ask if Transport Canada is responding to its concerns, and the answer is always, “No.” I challenge members to look it up on the website. They will see that this goes back through eight years of incompetence by the government and the Minister of Transport, the same one who is leaving Pearson Airport a mess and leaving other airports a mess.
We can take a look at the watch-list. There are a couple of items from the watch-list here. Keep in mind that we were deprived of our ability, on behalf of Canadians, to address this issue. This is from the watch-list, just the air watch-list: “Runway overruns continue to pose a risk to people, property, and the environment.” That is wonderful. The next one is, “Runway incursions lead to an ongoing risk of aircraft colliding with vehicles or other aircraft.” Runway incursions have doubled since the current government took power. Think about that, Mr. Speaker.
Members can remember Air Canada at Los Angeles, LAX. A couple of years ago, due to an error, an Air Canada flight almost landed on and collided with another plane. The loss of life would have been in the hundreds and hundreds. That is what a runway incursion is. They have doubled in the last eight years. We were deprived of our opportunity to question them to make sure they have enough resources to do their work.
Also on the watch-list is, “Some transportation operators in the air, marine, and rail sectors are not managing their safety risks effectively.” Does the Transportation Safety Board have enough resources and people to follow up? We are not going to get a chance to question them and perhaps adjust the estimates for that.
Another issue is, “Crews often work long and irregular schedules, which poses a significant risk.” What Canadian out there wants to read this and know we could not ask questions about it, examine it or look at the departmental plans on how they are going to address this, because we have a lack of resources because of hybrid?
The TSB also wrote, “Regulatory surveillance has not always proven effective at verifying whether operators are, or have become, compliant with regulations and able to manage...safety”. If I go to its web page and actually read through the watch-list for marine as well, I would not be looking to fly in Canada. I think most of us in this place would be hiding in our basements, Zooming in like the Liberal government is, if we read what is going on.
I joke about that a bit, but this is a serious thing. This is a result of our not having the resources to examine this and make sure the Transportation Safety Board has resources or that its departmental plans reflect the ability to address that.
The next meeting that was cancelled was on June 7. Again, it was the operations and estimates committee. We had departmental officials called to explain why they were refusing an order of Parliament to produce documents. It is right in our rules and procedures that committees can order any document they wish. In fact, the Speaker, who is with us right now, ruled on this about a year ago, regarding the Winnipeg lab, that the committees have the power to order any documents they wish. The government cannot withhold them for privacy reasons or for any reasons. We have the ultimate power.
OGGO, with the support of the governing party, requested documents from McKinsey & Company. We asked McKinsey and we asked the 19 departments that had done business with McKinsey. Guess what? McKinsey approached us and said it would give us everything unredacted, but the government had asked it to redact some stuff. It asked if it could redact that, and we said, “No. The order is for unredacted.” It provided that. However, of the government departments we ordered documents from, 19 out of 19 refused to hand over redacted documents
The Liberal government blocked all ability to report it to the House, so we invited the departments in to explain why they were refusing an order of Parliament. Do you know what, Mr. Speaker? We did not have the chance to talk to them, because of a lack of resources.
Here we have bureaucrats deciding what laws they will follow, what rules they will follow, not based on what Parliament decides, not based on what the Canadians who elected us decide, and not based on what Canadians want. We have bureaucrats deciding what they will hand over.
We had departments saying that the access to information law trumps Parliament, trumps what this very Speaker said our powers were. We had departments saying that the Constitution forbade Parliament from asking for these documents. We had one department actually claim that releasing the documents it had, that McKinsey had already provided us, would cause people's pensions to be at risk, even though McKinsey said it would hand them over.
We would have liked to ask the departments why they were blocking Parliament, but we never got to that, because of the lack of resources.
We like to say that Canada is a country of rules, and that the Constitution sets out the powers of Parliament and gives us the ability to make laws for peace, order and the good government of Canada. That is generally the case, unless the bureaucrats do not want that, in which case we cannot hold them accountable because we do not have the resources, because the virtual Parliament is burning out our translators, depriving us of this.
One of the more interesting ones that could not be brought before us was ESDC. It actually tabled redacted documents, despite the order, but it did not provide them in French. It was about 1,000 pages in English and 600 pages in French. We all know that, generally, if there are 10 words in English, it is about 12 or 13 in French. It tabled it, despite our Official Languages Act, despite issues that we have in this country, despite it being stated that we have problems with virtual Parliament drowning out French in this place. The government department did not table it in French. “Do not worry,” they said, “We will get back to you with it again in a week.”
The next week, they retabled it with English mixed in with the French, once again violating our rules. I would sure like to bring them before us, but of course we cannot.
We asked the Liberals if we could perhaps bring this to the House, to talk about why the department was violating the privileges of parliamentarians to have the documents in French. Liberals, with the help of the NDP cohort, blocked that as well.
I had the privilege of serving on PROC as well when we were studying some of the issues, and we heard from some of the translation bureau folks. They were telling us that it was like having popcorn going off in their ears when there were bad connections. We are still seeing, to this day, committee members showing up, Liberal committee members showing up without headsets. We have translators who are going on sick leave.
Again, think about that, the sound of popcorn going off in one's ears. That is with regular headsets.
We have a problem with this. I understand that there are some needs from time to time, when parliamentarians cannot get here. I accept that. I accept, perhaps, in the House, that there should be ways around it, so that we can ensure that our translators are protected, while also ensuring that we have accountability, that we can hold the departments accountable, that we can hold the government accountable, that we can do our jobs.
With how it is proposed right now, under the extension of the hybrid, I do not think we are getting that. I do not think Canadians are getting what they want out of parliamentarians. Parliamentarians are not getting what they want out of this system.
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Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to thank the member for Halifax West for her years of dedication to this, but also for her tremendous will to highlight her community.
At a time in Canada when so much feels lost to so many folks, sometimes all we have is who we are. Lebanese Canadians from coast to coast to coast can find solace in the fact that there are champions, not just in this chamber but right across the country, whether they are persons who work in the local grocery store, local business people or folks who have contributed to our Canadian history in ways that will not be forgotten, especially now with the hopeful passage of Bill S-246, designating November as Lebanese heritage month.
I want to speak a little to two fronts. One is about how the impact of Lebanese Canadians has affected me in my life, but in particular the community of Alberta. It is no secret that in Alberta there is a long-standing tradition between the Lebanese community and indigenous people in particular. Harkening back all the way to the fur trade, we knew that there were folks who were willing to join indigenous people in what would be the frontier of a new era, an era that would bring peace and prosperity but also a tremendous new way of life to the prairies, one which Lebanese Canadians are builders of.
There is a community in central Alberta called Lac la Biche. Lac la Biche is a small northern Alberta community that is home to some of the most vibrant Lebanese family members who I am sure many in the Lebanese community know. The member for Halifax West spoke about this. They have made huge contributions, not only to language diversity in Canada but also to indigenous culture.
I want to speak about a unique story in my community. Many of the Lebanese immigrants actually came to Alberta during the fur trade, and then learned languages, like Cree, Dene, Ojibway and Michif. They learned many indigenous languages and then took that with them to all walks of life. Many community members of Lebanese descent in Edmonton, Alberta, are from a little town called Lala. There was actually a teepee built in Lala. I remember as a young person seeing pictures from fellow Métis people of this community, far away, where we had relatives. It happened to be in the community in Lebanon, the tiny town of Lala.
This relationship is truly remarkable. It is one that I think emphasizes the tremendous contributions of Lebanese persons to the prairies and to places from coast to coast to coast, and in particular in Atlantic Canada.
I want to share a story about how my community in Edmonton was built. It was built by some remarkable Lebanese folks. One remarkable Lebanese person I want to talk about today, and one I hope we could all continue to speak about in many of the heritage months to come, is a woman named Hilwie Jomha, who was from Lala, a small village in the Beqaa Valley, what is now Lebanon, in 1905.
She was the daughter of a leading family in a village whose culture was of mixed Sunni, Shia, as well as Christian and Jewish faith. Hilwie's future husband, Ali Hamdon had come to Canada in the early 1900s, together with relatives and friends from the same valley she was from. He became a fur trader in Fort Chipewyan, in northern Alberta, where many of my family members were also fur traders. There is no doubt they would have known each other.
After he set up home there, he returned to Lala and to Hilwie. She immigrated with him in 1923 to begin her life's work in Canada, a kind of sacrifice that many make still today in the community, one that is not always easy, sometimes tremendously difficult, but one she took courage in and one that she found a home quickly in.
She adapted to life in Alberta. She quickly struck up deep friendships amongst the Jewish communities in Fort Chipewyan. After Hilwie had children, the Hamdons moved to Edmonton where Hilwie truly made her mark, not only as a citizen in Edmonton but as a community leader.
The city's small but fast-growing Muslim community had a big problem in the 1930s. Like everywhere else in Canada at that time, they did not have a mosque. Imagine that, not being able to have a place where one could gather with their friends, extended family and community. Prayers had to be held at individuals' homes, but they were limited in what they could do without a common meeting place.
Hilwie had a natural gift for connecting people. It was almost like a superpower, something that she was able to do not only as the new burgeoning community of Lebanese were there but also amongst all Edmontonians. She brought Muslims together for Ramadan and became a fixture of the local community during the 1930s. It was a decade when Arab businesses in Edmonton were making their mark on the city's business scene.
The Arab community in Edmonton had great strength and it began to have discussions about building a mosque of its very own. Hilwie was at the heart of these conversations. Soon these talks quickly turned into action, and Edmonton's Arab community hatched a plan to build North America's first mosque. Along with a group of Arab businessmen, Hilwie approached the mayor of Edmonton about buying some city land for the mosque, but there was a problem: The mayor wanted $5,000, quite a large sum at the time. However, the community members were not going to be let down, so they organized, but there was not a central body to do it.
To solve this problem, the community came together to found an Arab-Muslim association. Hilwie was at the heart of this community organizing. She marshalled the whole community, including people of various religious groups, to build the mosque. Hilwie went door to door on Jasper Avenue, in the heart of Edmonton Griesbach today, and asked business owners to support the project. These efforts allowed the group to buy the land for the mosque and build its foundations.
However, there were more challenges. The initial funding was not enough to complete the mosque. When money ran out, Hilwie and the community sprang into action and made appeals for funding to Muslim business owners right across western Canada. This final push toward that work resulted in the construction of the Al Rashid Mosque, which finally opened its doors in Edmonton in 1938. Al Rashid not only became Canada's first mosque but also one of the earliest in all of North America. It quickly became a fixture of local communities and still is to this day.
I am pleased to share the story of Hilwie, an incredible human being who helped not only to build the first mosque in Canada's history but also helped build our city, helped build our province and helped build our country. It not only speaks to the strength of Edmonton's Lebanese community; it is also a testament of what Canada is and what Canada can be. Lebanese heritage month would ensure that we have an opportunity to honour and celebrate remarkable Canadians like Hilwie every single year, which is something I am more than proud to stand to recognize.
I want to mention that as this bill proceeds, the New Democratic Party and I are pleased to support it in all stages.
Before I end, I want to mention some other remarkable people of Lebanese origin in my life, like the El Safadi brothers, who opened the doors of the first Lebanese grocery store in Edmonton. It became a mainstay of Arab Edmontonian diets, and I am sure that many of the Lebanese folks watching know very well, if they have ever visited Edmonton, that it is a staple.
Another example is the Canadian Arab Friendship Association, which wins the heritage day every single year, placing first in the festival. This year, as a matter of fact, the festival is being hosted in Edmonton Griesbach, and it has won that award for 17 years.
To conclude, I want to mention someone who is quite special in my life and special to the New Democratic Party, and that is Anthony Salloum.
Some members may know Anthony Salloum as the person in our opposition lobby, but Anthony Salloum is so much more. He is a remarkable human being who has served the New Democratic Party for over 20 years in an official capacity, and I am sure much longer than that unofficially. He is not only the person who sparks up a smile when someone walks by in the lobby or consoles them when they are having a bad day; he is also somebody who is going to reach across many party lines, because for him it is not about party but about people, just like many in the Lebanese community right across our country. He is someone who demonstrates the spirit and heart of the Lebanese community, like those in my community and right across Canada. The goodwill, the nature of community and the ability to support others is a staple that is huge in my life. I know I have been able to stand in this place with greater courage, with greater power and with a greater voice because of him.
To Anthony and to the many Lebanese right across our country, I want to thank you for your contribution and thank you for building your home here. This is truly home to us all.
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- Jun/14/23 12:47:02 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on June 5, I rose during question period to ask the emergency preparedness minister a question in regards to the devastating forest fires and wildfires raging across northern Alberta. I particularly asked the minister to recognize the complete devastation of one of the communities known as the East Prairie Métis Settlement.
Before I get too far into that, I want to speak directly to how important the work of reconciliation really is here in Canada. The government was clear that the most important relationship was to indigenous people, a nation-to-nation, government-to-government relationship that would hopefully begin the healing journey for many indigenous people who are caught not only by the traps of history and cycles in which we fall into, but also the cycles of natural disaster and jurisdictional loopholes that continue to plague indigenous communities like the East Prairie Métis Settlement.
I spoke about the important need to ensure that there was immediate temporary housing for the many families who have lost so much. I have a quote here from members of the community of the East Prairie Métis Settlement that they provided me, which has given evidence of what is needed right now in the community.
However, I want to reference the fact that when I asked the minister this question, he was not actually even certain as to which nation I was speaking of. He responded with the Métis National Council, and although I am a supporter of the Métis National Council, the Métis Settlement of East Prairie is not a member of the Métis National Council nor is any Métis settlement in Alberta. I also want to mention that Métis settlements, which are land-based communities, are only present in northern Alberta, and the minister failed to recognize this unique quality, despite the fact that the government's most important relationship is the nation-to-nation one.
I want to speak about how important it is, during a time of emergency and crisis, if we truly are in a nation-to-nation relationship, that our partner is truly there. This was not present in the response by the minister, and I want to make clear how important it is to ensure that we support indigenous communities when emergency strikes.
The minister has certainly heard of Jordan's principle. That principle says that when an indigenous person, in this case, Jordan, approaches a government, whether it is the provincial or federal government, it is that government that takes action on behalf of that person, who in this case was a child. Jordan died because of living in a jurisdictional wasteland and being tossed back and forth.
I am asking for a Jordan's principle approach to this natural emergency that is taking place in northern Alberta. We have 14 houses that were destroyed, 14 families who are now homeless in northern Alberta, and the community is asking for $900,000 to ensure that these families can continue to live without having to face the brunt of homelessness any longer. There is also a bridge, at $4.5 million, that was lost in that community. It is the only way in and out of that community. These are critical infrastructure projects that the province has neglected to deal with, because of the population being Métis and the fact that there is a jurisdictional battle currently taking place between the province and the federal government as to who is responsible for this community.
I am asking that the minister take his responsibility and his commitment to indigenous people seriously and work with the East Prairie Métis Settlement to temporarily house these families until something can happen and prepare the community to ensure that they can actually re-enter their home by assisting in the construction of a bridge. These are basic asks of any Canadian when disaster strikes. It is even more important that, as the federal government has the power to act on behalf of Métis people, confirmed by the 2016 Daniels v. Canada Supreme Court decision, it should use its power and responsibility to actually do the right thing. Will the minister do the right thing and help this community?
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- Jun/14/23 12:51:08 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Edmonton Griesbach for raising this matter for further debate in this chamber.
Let me begin by acknowledging the devastating impact these wildfires have had on indigenous communities and Albertans across the province. I very much recognize, as the hon. colleague has previously raised in the chamber, that people of the East Prairie Metis Settlement have been among those who lost their homes. Our thoughts are with them and all affected Albertans in the face of this devastating loss.
First, I have a quick update on the current situation in the province. As of June 12, there are 82 wildfires burning in Alberta and 29 are out of control. Some 14,046 people are currently evacuated from their communities. Five indigenous communities in Alberta are among those reporting evacuees.
We are continuing to follow the latest developments in Alberta closely and have been working closely with the province to ensure it has the support it needs to deal with these immediate threats. To that end, on May 10, the Minister of Emergency Preparedness approved the request for federal assistance from the Province of Alberta, activating federal resources to help it combat the ongoing fires.
In response to this request for assistance, the Canadian Armed Forces have been deployed to provide firefighting support resources, airlift resources, including the evacuation of isolated communities, and engineering support. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which is a Natural Resources Canada supported entity, is also coordinating the movement of firefighters from other provinces and international partners.
Employment and Social Development Canada has been supporting impacted Canadians with enhanced Service Canada hours, outreach to evacuees and deployment of mobile units to evacuation centres to support applications for services such as employment insurance.
The Public Health Agency of Canada's national emergency stockpile has been engaged and has shipped requested supplies. PHAC is standing at the ready to provide additional supplies if required.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada has been working with the Province of Alberta and telecommunication service providers to keep people connected.
Other departments involved in supporting emergency response include Public Services and Procurement Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Transport Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Indigenous Services Canada's emergency management assistance program is also supporting the response and recovery efforts for Alberta's on-reserve indigenous communities currently experiencing the devastating effects of these wildland fires. Such efforts include resource coordination, evacuee supports and recovery support for repairs to on-reserve community infrastructure.
With respect to an issue that I know is important to the member, I recognize, as my hon. colleague is likely already aware, that negotiations regarding a reconciliation agreement with the federal government and the Metis Settlements General Council are ongoing. While this work is being led by the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, these important conversations are helping to strengthen our government-to-government relationship with all eight Métis settlements in Alberta.
When the cost from a natural disaster exceeds a province or territory's ability to respond on its own, the federal government can provide assistance through the disaster financial assistance arrangements. This can help with up to 90% of eligible recovery costs and can include uninsured damage to principal residences.
Let us not forget that the current wildfire risk remains extremely high. Our government will continue to work with all partners, including provinces, territories and indigenous communities, to help keep their communities safe in the immediate term and to be an effective federal partner into the recovery.
I thank my hon. colleague for his excellent advocacy on this critical issue.
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- Jun/14/23 12:55:54 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the people in the East Prairie Metis Settlement who have lost their homes are going through the unimaginable right now. While the federal government generally provides disaster assistance directly to provinces and territories, we can cover up to 90% of eligible response and recovery costs. While there are no final costs yet, we know the damage caused by Alberta's wildfires is already significant, and we are prepared to work with all partners to ensure that all communities are supported.
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