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House Hansard - 219

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 18, 2023 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23
Mr. Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay, NDP)
  • Sep/18/23 2:16:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for hundreds of thousands of Canadians, it has been an anxious, stressful and even tragic summer. Wildfires have ravaged forests from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island. Sixteen million hectares have been burned, and 200,000 Canadians have been evacuated from their homes. I want to thank all the firefighting crews on land and in the air for the difficult and courageous work they have undertaken to keep all of us safe. Tragically, four firefighters have lost their lives in that work this summer. We need to support the thousands of volunteer firefighters across Canada, and we need a national wildfire fighting force to augment the local and provincial teams that have been overwhelmed, a well-trained force that could be deployed quickly wherever needed. We need to act to stem the climate crisis that has overwhelmed all of us. With skyrocketing temperatures on land and sea, the planet is warning us that we are in uncharted territory and must act with the urgency and strength that this catastrophe demands.
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Context: House Hansard - 219 - Sep/18/23
Mr. Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay, NDP)
  • Sep/18/23 3:18:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this summer over 16 million hectares of forests burned; more than 200,000 Canadians were forced to flee their homes. To call this wildfire season unprecedented is an understatement, and with off-the-charts global temperatures, we can expect climate change to deliver even more extreme wildfires. It is clear Canada's wildfire response was overwhelmed. Waiting for help from overseas costs valuable time and money, and the Liberals do not seem to be rushing to fix the system. Will the minister support our call for a national wildfire-fighting service, which can be deployed immediately where needed?
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