Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the member for putting forward this important bill.
I thank Mr. Pomeroy for being here as a witness today and for all of his work.
We know that unprecedented weather events have impacted Canadians. It used to be that we were talking about a scary future, but now we're talking about the scary present that we are living through. In British Columbia, we're experiencing multi-year droughts at the same time as extreme flooding and evacuations.
I notice that the preamble of this bill talks a bit about how “communities and industries, notably the farming industry, are inordinately impacted by floods and droughts”. That's so true. We also know that many indigenous communities face a far greater risk of weather-related emergencies.
How do you see governments working with first nations and Inuit and Métis communities to implement these kinds of policies and to really make sure that they are leading some of this work?