The reality is that the residents of Jasper—those who have lost their homes; the family members of those who are putting up people who have lost their homes, and the friends and the neighbours who are doing just the same; and those who have lost their businesses and their entire livelihoods and are probably currently battling with insurance companies over all of this, along with dealing with potential legal and accounting fees—are waiting for answers. They're waiting for some sort of solace that we can do better in the future, and I think they believe that we must do better in the future.
Obviously, in any tourist community like Jasper, local businesses are the lifeblood of the economy. Where I'm from is much closer to Riding Mountain National Park, where I was just a few weeks ago, and that is the most important part of the community. The vitality is sustained by all of the jobs created locally and those they bring in, both for jobs and for research. That's what makes our national park communities so important.
In my view, Jasper's residents need leadership right now. They need to understand what happened and how it will be prevented from ever happening again.
I'll be blunt. From talking to my colleague from the region in particular and some people on the ground there, I know there are families who still don't know where they're going to live and who don't have direct, immediate friends and family they can post up with for what is going to be a lengthy period of time.
Small business owners there are at a loss. They're stuck. They have no revenue. They don't know what to do. They don't know whether they have the confidence to rebuild in the community. As I said earlier, they're battling with insurance companies.
I don't want to call it insurmountable, because I believe in Canadian entrepreneurship. I believe in Canadian people. It can be overcome, but it is extremely difficult. We not only need to recognize the moments of that fire overtaking that community but we also need to respect the aftermath of it and the impacts it has had on all of the individuals I've just mentioned, and even on many of the tourists who want to go there and have booked trips and had things changed.
The people of Jasper are trying, and they will get back on their own two feet, but we need to do everything we can to support them, particularly after acknowledging that we didn't do everything we could to prevent this catastrophic fire from happening.
We are told that there is a plan in place from the current government and that the federal government is working with provincial and municipal governments and indigenous partners, which is excellent news. I think it's fantastic to hear that those efforts are being undertaken, but like any other government program or project, I'm always a bit skeptical of the timeliness of the execution of that plan. We need to see that plan in action.
In my view—and this is the reason for my subamendment to this motion—we need to hear directly from the minister who has now been appointed by the current Prime Minister as part of that effort to understand what happened and, more importantly, how we can rebuild that community and protect them from having this ever happen again. We need to hear directly from the minister on how we are going to see a rebuild happen.
I'm not looking for vague announcements, news releases or even backgrounders or written statements. I want to see and hear directly from the minister, and I think all Jasperites do. I think members of this committee, broadly speaking, all reasonably want to hear what concrete steps are going to be taken and what that is going to mean, in terms of real timelines, to the people who are dealing with this devastation in real time.
The people of Jasper simply need to know how the federal government is going to support them and how this recovery process will be coordinated, and that we as parliamentarians know where the pressure points are to apply the necessary pressure to ensure that it happens swiftly and that this isn't some forgotten disaster where the people who were directly impacted will just be lost to time. Mr. Chair, the fact of the matter is that time is critical on this particular topic.
We have heard, and I do appreciate the comments from the Prime Minister and the government more broadly that this recovery for Jasper is a priority, but, as we all know, actions speak louder than words. Words mean very little to people who are dealing with such distress—financial, family and otherwise.
We are hearing that Minister Boissonnault, if December 4 is his earliest appearance opportunity, is too busy to attend this committee. Listen, if that means that Minister Boissonnault is spending all of his time on the ground, talking to small business owners, talking to councillors for the community and talking to individuals who have been left homeless and, frankly, anybody else who has been impacted by this devastation, then I might be willing to accept that. Thus far, I have not seen any evidence that that is the case. To me, it's not acceptable.
In my view as a parliamentarian, as somebody who has done, among my colleagues, a thorough, important, valuable and timely investigation into this matter, I think his appearance is essential, to put it mildly. It's not just for the people of Jasper but for anybody who's seen this issue online or on TV, or heard it on radio or anywhere else and thinks that this is important. These are my fellow Canadians facing real, substantive challenges, and I want to see the outcome of it be real, be quick and be what we would expect of a government that was negligent in its responsibilities.
My understanding is that the minister has been given the title of ministerial lead for Jasper. Obviously titles are important, but the question must be this: Is that minister leading, or is this a show? Is he merely sitting idly by? I would love to hear it from him, whichever Randy wants to show up. His role should be about coordinating support, ensuring that the resources are flowing into the community and, most importantly, ensuring that Jasper's recovery is moving forward at the pace that the people on the ground deserve.
As far as I can tell—and I'll look to my colleague from the region to perhaps make comments after—the people of Jasper are very much still waiting for answers on many critical fronts. What is the plan to support the local businesses that are struggling to get back on their feet with the loss of tourism or the physical devastation of a fire to their particular business or something related to their business? How much financial assistance is making its way into the hands of those who need it most?
Broadly speaking, what is the federal government doing to ensure that Jasper remains on the front burner, that it isn't pushed to the back burner, that there's reconstruction and rebuilding of this notable, glorious national park? I have had the pleasure of visiting it, and I think many Canadians have. It is an iconic national park. Is it staying on the front burner, and will it forever? I think these are very reasonable questions.
Perhaps more importantly, as we heard through our investigation, with the fire coming from the south, there are still many, many dead pines standing within the national park. We are facing potential devastation with the wrong direction of winds in the rest of the community, the other two-thirds that was left standing. What is Parks Canada in particular doing to address these very real concerns?
In my view, the only way to address these issues, given that we've had a minister appointed responsible for the lead of Jasper, is to hear from that minister himself, so I think it's entirely reasonable that we ask this committee to convene to bring forward these very questions and to find out what he has discovered, recognizing that he is a relatively new minister to the file—not that he may have never been to Jasper, but this is a new role.
We're weeks on now, and if the importance of this issue is as paramount as the government has claimed it to be, then the direction to one of the Randys is to go and understand the issues that are facing this community. I think it's entirely reasonable that at this point we get an update that Minister Boissonnault is relatively up to speed in terms of the impact that he has witnessed in his travels and engagements with the community.
Second, where are we with the plan to help Jasper rebuild? I think we need to understand the specific details of those recovery efforts. We might not be the experts around this table, but we've certainly heard a lot about the challenges that led up to this.
It's important to provide a public platform to enable Minister Boissonnault to provide the specifics, not just vague promises. In my view—and I think I can say this for my colleagues, at least—this is not the time for delay. The people of Jasper, particularly those who have been directly impacted, need and deserve answers, and they need and deserve them now.
Now, in my view, Minister Boissonnault's appointment here was an important step. I think it's a very real recognition of the devastation that has been caused to that particular community of Jasper. However, it is only a step. If we are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves, there are most definitely numerous steps needed, and they need to be taken in collaboration with locals. That's his job. I would love to hear directly from him how that is going. I think it is entirely reasonable.
This is not a matter of politics. It's a matter of lives and livelihoods—the ones that were lost through this devastation—and the opportunity to rebound into the future. It's a matter of understanding where Parks Canada went wrong and adjusting for the future.
I couldn't imagine being put in the position of experiencing a fire, personally. My family has been in the position of experiencing floods. I don't want to compare the two, but fires are simply devastating. Everything's lost, from your family photo albums—even if you had them on a USB or an old laptop—to the storage unit of your business and any aspect of your life we could all dream up and imagine. If what we owned, loved and lived disappeared, it would be devastating. To me, it's one of the most devastating possible natural disasters. That's not to minimize the impact of floods, but there's something more to it.
In my view, we shouldn't have to wait until December 4 for Minister Boissonnault to show up. Again, Mr. Chair, I would be happy to hear that on Mondays and Wednesdays, when this committee meets, Minister Boissonnault is on the ground in Jasper just talking to people. Perhaps his office could provide a response to clarify that, in fact, on Mondays and Wednesdays he is in Jasper.
