Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of our witnesses. Unfortunately, I won't be able to ask everyone, so I'm going to focus mainly on the mayors from the Similkameen Valley and the Nicola Valley.
In the House of Commons, on November 30, 2021, I said this to the Prime Minister, and I'm just going partway through my comments. I said:
The mayors, Spencer Coyne from Princeton, B.C. as well as Linda Brown from Merritt, B.C. have both said to me that the bill required to fix what is necessary to get people back in their homes will be in the tens of millions of dollars and those communities do not have it. Under the DFA, the 80/20 sharing, where 20% is paid by municipalities, will be beyond their ability to pay.
Is the Prime Minister willing to help these communities? It will take years to restart, and I hope we will get a positive response.
I won't go into everything he said, but he did say:
Madam Speaker, I regret the partisan tone of the introduction to the member's question, but I recognize that he has been a solid voice for his community, which has been hit hard by these extreme weather events.
I highlight that I know we need to not only be there for people right now, as I told Mayor Brown of Merritt, who I spoke to a few weeks ago, that we would be there for her and her community, as we will for people right across British Columbia, but we need to do more in fighting climate into the future as well, on ensuring that we are cutting our oil and gas sector emissions, that we are moving forward on investing in clean, renewable energies and that we are building climate-resilient infrastructure. These are things that matter.
On the disaster response support, I have simply said that the federal government will be there. We will work hand in hand with British Columbia and we will support Canadians who need help.
My first question, Mr. Chair, is for Mayor Coyne, and then for Mayor Goetz. The Prime Minister has made a commitment in the House of Commons to work on the concerns that your community has raised on the DFA. Have your communities seen any change to the DFA that reflects the calls from your respective communities?
Mayor Coyne.