National Defence Committee on Nov. 9th, 2023

[Mike Ellis]

A simple answer to your question is that I think it is certainly worth exploring and seeing if it is at all going to be effective.

Again, Alberta, like the rest of Canada, is quite large. We really rely a lot on our local municipalities to make sure they are prepared. Then again, Alberta Emergency Management augments and supports that.

I can see a role for the federal government to augment and support our provincial emergency management.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Do you find it's easier to deal province to province when you have a crisis like the wildfires?

Unfortunately, all provinces were consumed with firefighting this year.

Is it easier to deal with the other provinces and coordinate that way, or is it just as easy to work with organizers or a command at the national level?

[Mike Ellis]

Specifically, regarding firefighters and any procurement of firefighters, those are always dealt with through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. It's not as simple as calling up British Columbia and saying, hey, do you have any firefighters?

This is a very good organization. It's very well coordinated. Every time we needed more firefighters, they were able to get some from other provinces or again, as resources started to dwindle throughout Canada, that was when we started looking internationally.

That is a very well-run agency. At least it's been working quite well.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

For other threats that need attending to, would having it modelled after that firefighting organization be something to look at as well?

[Mike Ellis]

Yes. Now we're talking about operational deployments as well. Canada is large, as you and everyone in the room knows. We couldn't base everything in Ottawa. We would have to start looking strategically at where to place resources, figure out what the emergency management organizations were within each province, and figure out where something like that would fit in.

I'll just leave a final point about crisis situations. At least in my experience over the last year, I have seen municipalities, the province, the federal government and Canadians in general, especially with the Northwest Territories and the way they faced the crisis and the way everybody was able to help them, and I think what we as Canadians do is just help people.

I appreciate that.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Ms. Gallant.

Ms. Lambropoulos, go ahead for three minutes.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Can you please confirm whether the headset I'm wearing is appropriate? This is not the one I usually use. I just want to make sure.

I will thank the witnesses for being here with us to answer some of our questions. I also want to thank you for your services—

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

I'm sorry, Emmanuella, but apparently you are not being approved.

I'm going to turn the three minutes over to one of the other colleagues on the Liberal side.

Ms. Lalonde, go ahead.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

First, thank you all for coming.

Perhaps I'll leave the floor open. If you were to recommend something to this committee, what would it be? I would like to hear from the three of you, please.

We'll start with Sergeant Banks.

[Christopher Banks]

There's one thing I keep coming back to, because I'm also a Canadian; I'm also a citizen; I'm also invested in the future of the military. I do pay attention to policy in the news. One thing that keeps coming up in the conversation is what the best bet for the creation of a national fire service is. I think that's where the committee should probably take the recommendation from the brief I submitted.

Sit down and actually do a cost comparison of what it would cost to fund the military to build it versus to create a new agency. I think there would be a lot of cost savings considering that the military has airfields across the country and storage facilities across the country. We have a pretty awesome firefighting college in Base Borden. The skill sets are already in the military. Those skills sets and a property would have to be built for a new capacity and a new agency.

I think the study should be done, an actual cost comparison.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

Thank you very much.

Go ahead, Deputy Premier.

[Mike Ellis]

Thank you.

Quite simply, I think that continued supports for fire and flood mitigation are vitally important. We try to prevent things before they happen. One thing we're preparing for, unfortunately, is that we expect more fires and floods. As a result of that, we have to make sure we're protecting our communities.

I certainly wish to continue to work collaboratively with the federal government to do this.

I just want to make sure, whether it be the federal government or the military, that we're doing exercises together for these events. We always do simulations here in Alberta. We certainly would appreciate working with the federal government.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Orléans, ON]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Dr. Flannigan.

[Dr. Mike Flannigan]

There are only going to be more emergencies in the future. We need to explore our options. We have the expertise and knowledge in Canada for a Canadian-made solution.

Emergencies are a multi-faceted problem we're dealing with. We'll need multipronged solutions. There's no quick fix or silver bullet.

We should explore options. Whether that's a task force or a white paper, I leave it to you to figure out the best path forward. We need to explore our options to deal with the new reality.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mrs. Lalonde.

On behalf of the committee, I want to thank all three of you for your contributions and your patience. We appreciate it.

Sergeant Banks, thank you for your service, sir. We appreciate all that you do for our country.

Before I bring down the gavel, can I have a motion to have the costs of the headsets for the Hamas-Israel briefing covered in the amount of $3,750?

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

I so move.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you very much.

We'll see you not next week, but the following week.