Thank you, Chair.
The Prime Minister 28 days ago appointed Randy Boissonnault as the minister responsible for Jasper's recovery. Twenty-eight days ago, Randy Boissonnault should have been here testifying at the Jasper wildfire investigation. If Minister Boissonnault is in charge of rebuilding Jasper, why is he not prioritizing this committee and the people of Jasper? I think it's a disgrace to the people of Jasper that Minister Boissonnault is hiding from this committee. There are many reasons Minister Boissonnault may not want to appear at this committee, and I'm going to list a few.
Over the course of the Jasper wildfire investigations Canadians have been exposed to some damning testimony and evidence that suggests this government was grossly negligent in protecting Jasper. On September 26, Minister Guilbeault testified at the Jasper wildfire investigation. He claimed that Jasper's wildfire preparedness was a success, but he also told this committee that he was briefed on the serious likelihood of a catastrophic fire in Jasper. Instead of taking responsibility for his department's actions and lack of actions, he avoided answering the questions Canadians were asking. In response to his appearance, the National Post wrote an article with the following headline: “The environment minister repeatedly evaded questions about the federal government's response to multiple warnings of the potential for a catastrophic forest fire in Jasper”. How true.
The Jasper wildfire investigation also revealed that senior Parks officials were discussing cancelling prescribed burns in western Canada months before Jasper burned. In an email exchange obtained through an access of information request, a senior Parks Canada official asked, “At what point do we make the organizational decision to cancel...prescribed burns in Western Canada?” Then the official stated, “political perception may become more important than actual prescription windows.”
This email exchange was black and white. It was crystal clear what was being discussed, but instead of taking responsibility, this government claimed that everyone but them was misinterpreting this email.
They said this was a discussion about mechanical removal, but nowhere in the email was this mentioned. In fact, it was another Parks Canada official who verified our concerns through another email exchange that was obtained. Another senior official responded to that email and stated, “I hope we don't get into a blanket shutdown,” and, “It is critical to continue those kind of burns. It is how they maintain the [community firebreak], and when they fall behind, it is very difficult to catch up.”
It wasn't just Conservatives raising concerns with this email. It was Parks Canada's very own officials too. Was Minister Boissonnault aware of these discussions?
On October 2, the Minister of Emergency Preparedness admitted at the Jasper wildfire investigation that he was unaware the environment minister's officials were discussing the cancellation of prescribed burns. He later refused to admit that Parks Canada should have removed more dead trees to protect Jasper. During that meeting, Minister Guilbeault's senior vice-president at Parks revealed that he does not take any—I can't believe I'm reading this again—minutes at their operations meetings when asked to hand over evidence to the Jasper wildfire investigation. I can't believe that. You don't take any minutes. No matter, you can't prove anything. How convenient. It's actually quite frankly absurd too.
When asked how many dead trees remained standing in Jasper, Parks Canada could not answer this basic question. It was for these reasons that the National Post published an article the following day. The article stated, “Steven Guilbeault doesn't want your Jasper fire questions—he's saving the planet, don't you know”. It further stated, “Guilbeault self-congratulated his record on fighting climate change in general and attacked Conservatives for not doing so. More jabs, no insight into how fire mitigation measures were or were not taken as the dry timber piled up.”
On October 7, the Jasper wildfire investigation revealed that Minister Guilbeault's department turned away multiple fire trucks and firefighters who arrived on the scene to help. Later that day, the Jasper wildfire investigation revealed that Minister Guilbeault's department handcuffed Alberta from making firefighting decisions as over 30,000 hectares burned. Was Minister Boissonnault aware of these decisions?
A headline in the National Post stated, “Alberta's deputy premier slams 'unified command' snub by feds during Jasper wildfire”. By this time, the Jasper wildfire investigation was proving that the Liberal government was not only incompetent in protecting Jasper; it was negligent.
Another newspaper headline read, “Federal negligence at root of Jasper's wildfire devastation”. Wow.
Another article stated:
...federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault claimed that Ottawa could not have done better either before or during the fire.
At any suggestion that Ottawa was lacking, he trotted out climate change as the true culprit. It was clear more than once that a big ugly fire in Alberta is a great boost for his climate agenda.
Focusing on climate also turned—