- Member of Parliament
- Minister of National Defence
- Liberal
- Scarborough Southwest
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $115,019.32
- Government Page
- Jun/14/23 3:12:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for a very important question. I want to assure him that I will reach out today to the British Columbia government and ensure that there is close coordination between federal supports and the province's work to serve that community. We will work with him and those communities to ensure that the people who are impacted by those wildfires receive the supports that they require.
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- Apr/4/22 2:52:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his advocacy on behalf of his constituents.
Right from the beginning of the terrible floods that took place in British Columbia, we have been there. We have been working with the people of British Columbia, with the provincial government and with local authorities as well. We have already committed $5 billion to that rebuild, and the work is ongoing with municipalities, the people impacted by the floods, the province and indigenous communities in order to make sure the federal government would be there for the people of British Columbia.
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- Feb/14/22 2:52:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member opposite for his ongoing collaboration and hard work on behalf of his constituents.
I want to take the opportunity to assure the member that we are working very closely with the B.C. government, and we have made commitments to be there for the people of British Columbia not only as they recover from the terrible floods of last fall, but as they build a more resilient community. We will be there to support them, and we are working hard with them to do so.
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- Feb/4/22 11:33:51 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, I understand the member's frustration. We share it.
We are working very hard with the province. As I am sure the member knows, the disaster financial assistance arrangement is done in partnership with our provincial authorities, and we are working with them to move money as expeditiously as possible to those communities that need it.
We know there is an enormous amount of work to be done, and there are issues with respect to interim housing. I would also point out to the member that as a result of money that we, as well as the province, have provided to the Canadian Red Cross, we have been able to provide financial supports and services to individual families. Over 7,500 families have received direct support as a result of that contribution. We will continue to be there for the people of Merritt, and for all of the people of British Columbia.
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- Feb/4/22 11:32:33 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the member for the important question and for his strong advocacy on behalf of his constituents and the people of British Columbia. I want to assure the House that we are working very closely with the provincial authority. I spoke extensively with the deputy premier on this very issue the other day.
We have made over $5 billion available through the disaster financial assistance fund. We are working with communities and speaking to B.C. municipalities in order to facilitate recovery from the terrible events that took place as a result of the flooding. I want to assure the member that we will continue to work with him and with the affected communities, to be there for them and to help in the recovery.
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- Dec/13/21 2:45:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will certainly speak up to allow the member to hear me. This is a very important question. It is unfortunate some of the members opposite are afraid to hear the answer.
Last week, our Minister of Agriculture travelled to British Columbia, met with her counterpart and visited many of the farmers who were impacted in that region. It is very clear that we are going to have to provide significant supports not only to those who have lost livestock in this tragedy, but also to the blueberry farmers the member references. There is significant work to be done. That is why the joint committee of the federal government, the Government of British Columbia and indigenous leadership in the area will be convening an important meeting later today to work together to solve this issue—
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- Dec/13/21 2:45:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know that farmers in this region have been significantly impacted by these floods. That is why our Minister of Agriculture met with her B.C. counterpart, visited the area last week and toured those areas impacted—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Dec/13/21 2:43:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know the water that fell in the Cascades a month ago accumulated in the Nooksack River and much of it has flowed into the Sumas Prairie, impacting Canadians on our side of the border. We are continuing to work with the Americans to manage this, but we are working as well with local officials, the people who reside in the Canadian portion of that impacted area and the British Columbia government. There are a number of studies that clearly indicate there need to be significant investments made into rebuilding a more resilient infrastructure. That is the work we are undertaking now.
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- Dec/13/21 2:42:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the remarkable generosity and support that British Columbians and Canadians right across the country have provided to those impacted by these terrible floods.
We have been working closely with the British Columbia government and the Canadian Red Cross to match funds and, so far, $175 million has been accumulated between the three donors in order to support British Columbians. The Canadian Red Cross is doing important work in registering those individuals and conducting assessments to ensure the money goes where it is needed the most. At the same time, we welcome the generosity of so many British Columbians in supporting their neighbours.
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- Dec/6/21 3:08:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while I commend the member opposite for the clarity of his hindsight, the reality is that there are always ongoing important discussions between ourselves and our American partners with respect to keeping our communities safe.
With respect to the flooding of the Nooksack River, there have been and will continue to be ongoing discussions and work to ensure that water overflowing from the river does not impact upon our communities. That work is going on now.
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- Nov/30/21 3:01:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I know this is a question very much on the minds of people impacted by these floods. It is why we have established, with the British Columbia government, a joint committee to make sure that all of the ministers whose portfolios have been impacted by these devastating floods are at the table and working collaboratively. It also gives us an opportunity to recognize the importance of engaging with indigenous leadership on these important discussions as well.
We will ensure that all orders of government and indigenous leadership come to the table to make sure that we provide the support and assistance that British Columbians need as they rebuild and recover from these devastating floods.
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- Nov/30/21 3:00:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is an important question. It gives me an opportunity to acknowledge the extraordinary generosity of Canadians who have been there for the people of British Columbia impacted by these floods. We are very grateful and want to acknowledge their generosity.
Just last week, the Prime Minister announced that the federal and provincial governments will match each and every dollar raised by the Canadian Red Cross. To date, they have raised $14 million. That means $42 million will be available to help the people of British Columbia. The funding will be used by the Canadian Red Cross to support evacuated families. They have done it before for us in Fort McMurray. It is an organization that is well positioned to meet the needs—
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- Nov/30/21 2:49:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a very important question. Just last week, the Prime Minister and I travelled to British Columbia and visited with many of the impacted communities. It is very clear that it is going to require an extraordinary effort to recover and rebuild from the devastating flooding that has taken place in British Columbia.
We have announced that we are forming a joint committee, working with both the provincial and federal governments and bringing indigenous leadership to the table. Communication and coordination with those municipal leaders is going to be a critical part of our response.
We know there is a great deal of work to do, and we are prepared to be there for the people of British Columbia as they recover and rebuild from these devastating floods.
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- Nov/24/21 7:27:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciate the Bloc's expression of solidarity in this time of great challenge for Canadians right across the country.
We note this week, and in the past few weeks, that the problems have been centred very much in British Columbia, but we are seeing significant rain events impacting the people of Nova Scotia and now Newfoundland. Of course, the impact of floods has been even more difficult, in many aspects, in areas of Quebec, so I think there is agreement.
There is national consensus that more must be done, and I think there is a growing consensus in this country, certainly shared by the members of the House, that we must take bolder and more ambitious climate action to address what is becoming far too obvious: the impact of climate change on the everyday lives and safety of Canadians.
We are ambitious in our plans to address climate change, and we also understand that it is not just simply thinking it is necessary to build back a cleaner and greener economy for Canada. We also have to create a more resilient economy and society to ensure the safety of our communities and our citizens in their homes, and to maintain essential supply lines. All of those things are being impacted by climate events.
We share the ambition, and we are committed to working hard with members to address the real impacts we are seeing every day that climate change is having on the lives of Canadians.
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- Nov/24/21 7:25:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his advocacy on behalf of the community.
I know the mayor of Abbotsford well. I visited that town, and whenever I go to that town, I make a point of going to see the mayor. I know he is a strong advocate for his community.
I also want to acknowledge the event that has just transpired with an absolutely incredible amount of rainfall falling in that basin, although I am a little reluctant to use the term “unprecedented”. That water is going in and obviously almost overcoming the existing diking system. I thank God it did not, and underscore that it is the result of the incredible work of people from Chilliwack coming down and helping to sandbag it at the Barrowtown Pump Station. This managed to save that circumstance.
It is very clear that we need to make significant new investments. I can also tell members that there are approximately 120 Canadian Armed Forces members in Abbotsford today, and they are helping to restore that dike. In order to deal with that weather event, we are watching the weather very closely over the next several days. There will be up to 70 millimetres of rain falling in the Fraser Valley over the coming 10 or 11 days, so we are making sure that the infrastructure is there in the short term. In the long term, there is much more work to do.
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- Nov/24/21 7:14:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to have the opportunity to rise in the House to contribute to the discussion with my parliamentary colleagues about the tragic flooding that has been impacting British Columbia. I would like to begin by acknowledging the friends and families of those who have lost loved ones and all those who have been impacted by these floods, landslides and extreme weather conditions in B.C., not just during the most recent floods but also through the very challenging times last summer with wildfires occurring and the extreme weather event that also impacted that province.
This is also an opportunity to extend our thanks and gratitude to the first responders, search-and-rescue volunteers, emergency managers and Canadian Armed Forces members who have been working tirelessly to keep people safe during this difficult time. I would also like to acknowledge community leaders, mayors, police chiefs, fire chiefs and ordinary citizens who demonstrated compassion, courage and extraordinary citizenship in standing up and being there for their fellow citizens.
I would like to provide the House with a brief update. The situation on the ground overall continues to improve, in terms of dropping river levels and incremental progress on damage assessment, repair and restoration and community support. River advisories and warnings continue to be downgraded as river flows return to normal. The provincial emergency order remains in effect until December 1, and as we continue to work closely with the Province of British Columbia to support its recovery, Canadians can be assured that the federal government remains vigilant and will be ready to respond to all evolving threats related to this emergency.
Last week, I received a request from the government of the Province of British Columbia for assistance. This included a request for air support to evacuate people affected by the floods, to reach important supply routes disrupted by the floods, to help vulnerable, stranded people in distress and to provide personnel to mitigate the effects of the floods, including protecting critical infrastructure, access roads and properties. I can advise the House that over 500 members of the Canadian Armed Forces have answered that call, and are deployed on the ground providing support and services to the people of British Columbia.
We have also been working collaboratively to coordinate communications with the B.C. government and our colleagues to ensure that people are kept well informed to take actions to keep themselves safe and to recover from this very difficult experience. We remain committed to strengthening and addressing national standards for public alerts so that Canadians, regardless of where they live, will receive timely notification of any threats and have the knowledge to make informed and safe decisions.
In times of emergency such as this, I am also pleased to note that many of us have been able to set aside our partisan affiliations to come together for the residents of British Columbia. Over the past week, I have had the privilege to meet with and to brief the local members of Parliament's constituents impacted most significantly by this flood. Both Conservative and NDP members have come together to meet with me and provide information and support to ensure that I was informed. They have been extremely active in bringing forward the concerns and needs of their constituents. I want to thank them for their collaboration and working together.
I also want to advise the House that our government has initiated a whole-of-government response and has convened three meetings of the incident response group in order to respond. Each of the ministers of the government was asked to provide the steps they are taking to address the province's most pressing needs. As a small example, the Minister of Employment mentioned this past weekend that British Columbians who had lost their jobs or been displaced could and should apply for EI online as soon as possible, even without records of employment. To alleviate pressures on indigenous communities, Indigenous Services Canada's emergency management assistance program is providing $4.4 million to the First Nations' Emergency Services Society. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is working very closely with the industry to support the humane and safe transport of animals and disposal of livestock that have died in this event. Health Canada is supporting its provincial health counterparts that have been so heavily affected by COVID, but also in their response to the recent flooding. The Canadian Coast Guard is engaged in responding to a large number of reports of drifting, sunken and beached vessels. There are many other examples.
As a direct response to a request from the B.C. government, there has also been an effort to change the exemptions for people living in the Lower Mainland to cross into the United States to obtain gas and other essential goods, such as fuel. Notwithstanding some early inconsistencies, additional guidance has been offered to both CBSA and the Public Health Agency. I am informed that this is now working very effectively and we are taking care of those cases that were mishandled in the first place.
Again, I would like to thank my colleagues for bringing those concerns forward and enabling us to quickly and effectively answer those questions. There are a number of other things I am happy to share with my colleagues. I would invite those who have questions or concerns, or want to bring concerns of their constituents to my attention, to reach out to me. I will respond quickly and I am grateful for their help.
I also see this debate today as an opportunity for us to reflect on how we can work together not only to reassure those who have been affected by the flooding, but to let them know we are focused on their needs by demonstrating our shared commitment to serving Canadians in some of the most difficult times they face. This also gives us an opportunity to perhaps be forward-leaning: not just reacting to what has transpired but changing the way in which we prepare for these events in the future. It allows us to acknowledge that in rebuilding from the damage that has impacted so many, we must also think about building back a more resilient Canada to ensure that critical infrastructure can withstand the impact of climate change.
This was echoed yesterday in the Speech from the Throne, in which we acknowledged the need to take action to prevent and prepare for extreme weather events brought about by climate change. We are seeing an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters. On average, Canada is warming twice as quickly as the rest of the world, and our north three times as quickly.
The science and experience of Canadians make this point clear: We must do more and we must act now to prepare this country for climate-impacted reality. The events of the past two years, including the pandemic, have shone a light on emergency management in Canada. Since January 2020, via the Government Operations Centre, the Government of Canada has supported 147 requests for federal assistance from the provinces and territories to respond to everything from the ongoing pandemic to wildfires, floods and winter storms.
However, we cannot be solely reactive. We need to better prepare for emergencies and strengthen our infrastructure, and that is why the government has created the stand-alone Ministry of Emergency Preparedness. I want to thank the Prime Minister for his confidence in assigning me this new role. In this role, I will be reaching out to our partners across the emergency management spectrum, including all orders of government, indigenous leaders, industry, the voluntary sector, academia and partners across the federal government to advance the work in this area that is increasingly a priority. Together we will create a more resilient, sustainable approach to emergency management that will help Canada prepare to mitigate, respond to and recover from disasters and we will be undertaking an effort to build a national culture of emergency preparedness.
This partnership approach has been evident in some of our most recent work. For example, at an FPT ministers' meeting we recently released the emergency management strategy for Canada, which identifies shared priorities that will strengthen Canada's resilience by 2030. The priority area in this strategy is to improve our understanding of disaster risks in all areas of society and how we can work together to minimize these risks.
For example, in budget 2019, we funded public safety over five years to improve Canada's ability to predict and respond to hazards, developing a national risk profile in collaboration with federal, provincial and territorial partners, as well as municipal and indigenous partners. It is a strategic national disaster risk and capability assessment that uses scientific evidence and stakeholder input to create a forward-looking picture of Canada's natural disasters and risks. It is based on scientific findings from various departments, other jurisdictions and research institutes, and it is clear that we need to strengthen our readiness to respond quickly and effectively to disaster events. One example of this is the work we have been doing to fund and support the Canadian Red Cross. Through this funding, the Red Cross has been able to strengthen its capacity and bring its expertise to help Canadians in long-term care facilities, isolation sites, and testing and vaccination sites as well as to facilities to help those who have been displaced by natural disasters.
We are also leading work on the co-development of Canada's first national adaptation strategy. This will help Canada respond to the shared reality of climate-change impacts by uniting all orders of government, indigenous people and private companies in a whole-of-society approach to climate-change adaptation.
The impact in British Columbia reminds us that flooding continues to be the most frequent and costly natural disaster in Canada, causing on average over $1 billion in direct damage to homes, property and infrastructure annually. The events in British Columbia will significantly raise this average. An estimated $8.5 billion has been committed to provinces through disaster financial assistance arrangements since they were created in 1970; however, 97% of these costs have been incurred over the past 25 years, and we are seeing an exponential increase in these expenses. As the member opposite mentioned, there is also the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund for disaster financial assistance.
All of those things will be available, but I want to assure him that, in our conversations with the provinces and territories, it is clear we have to make more significant investments to help our provincial and territorial partners build critical infrastructure that is sustainable, resilient and adaptive to the new climate reality.
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