Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague, the hon. member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, one of the ridings hardest hit by this dreadful ice storm.
I am pleased to participate today in this emergency debate on the ice emergency that affected a fair part of Quebec, eastern Ontario and part of New Brunswick.
I would like to start by paying tribute to the thousands of volunteers who were so generous with their time and effort. First, I think we must take our hats off to the linesmen from Quebec, neighbouring Canadian provinces and New England.
We must also salute the work of all Quebec civil emergency personnel, the Armed Forces members from Quebec and Canada as well as the Red Cross personnel, the fire and police services from the various municipalities, the Sûreté du Québec and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The job done by CLSC employees should be acknowledged as well. While visiting shelters, I noticed that people were discovering what a CLSC is and all the services it can provide. I get the feeling that CLSCs will get much more business once this crisis is over.
Town employees, and the mayors in particular, who played a key role during this crisis, should be congratulated. They have made it clear, I think, that, in organizing our society, as much power as possible should be devolved to local authorities. They know their people, and they are in a position to act quickly and effectively, which this crisis has proven most eloquently.
In addition to those I have named, there are certainly many more I have forgotten, who gave devoted service throughout this entire crisis.
The majority of Quebeckers, many Ontarians, and some New Brunswickers as well, have had to call upon their innate ability to cope, as well as an exemplary solidarity. Their situations were not always easy to deal with, but at the same time they offered many families and friends an opportunity to lend each other a hand, to join in solidarity, in some cases to forge new ties.
I saw many people who usually live alone, very often low income people, sometimes seniors, and who discovered new friendships in the emergency shelters, made new friendships. Many of the workers and volunteers, said to me “There will certainly be problems once the emergency is over, because these people will then find themselves alone again, after experiencing this new situation. There will have to be some very careful follow-up to help them out when they go back to their isolation, after having experienced something else during the emergency”.
That is one human factor the emergency gave us an opportunity to discover. We discovered many things, but that is certainly an important discovery.
I was affected personally for 36 hours, which is not much. I was not one of the disaster victims for several weeks. Some are still not out of the disaster situation. We have given a home to relatives from Saint-Hyacinthe, to people from the Beloeil region.
I visited most of the counties hit by the disaster, and the emergency shelters in Montreal. I became aware of the extraordinary morale, not only of the volunteers but also of the disaster victims, an extraordinary morale in the face of adversity.
I would first like to congratulate the members of the Bloc and, naturally, the members of the other parties as well. I mention those of the Bloc because most of us come from the Montérégie region and from the centre of Quebec. I want to congratulate the members from the other regions as well.
The member for Matane and the member for Lac St-Jean sent wood to members in the regions affected by the storm. Members from the Quebec City region took up collections throughout the weeks the regions were without power.
I also appreciated the fact that throughout the crisis everyone put their political opinions aside in order to get on with a job much more important than political partisanship.
Testimonials of support, shipments of wood, arrivals of vital supplies came from all over, from regions in Quebec and Canadian provinces and from the northeastern United States. In a crisis, Canadians and Quebecers and the vast majority of politicians can set aside their differences and work together to help those in difficulty.
The same was true during both the floods in Manitoba last spring and the flooding in the Saguenay over a year ago. Quebecers and Canadians gave expression to their deep sense of solidarity and mutual help.
Solidarity has no borders. The people of Canada and Quebec did a lot jointly as did the people of the United States and Quebec.
Beyond the exceptional acts of solidarity, the horror of the ice storm remains. Some regions have not yet recovered, and some men and women are still without electricity. Our help went to those affected by this catastrophe, the victims, and it must continue to do so.
The Bloc Quebecois has done everything in its power to ensure that the federal government helps everyone as much as possible, by enabling the victims of the storm to receive employment insurance benefits for the days of work they lost, ensuring that farmers get help and having the mail delivered on the weekend, for example.
I would like to take this opportunity to mention the invaluable co-operation of Canada Post. I was with the mayor of Boucherville and the Bloc Quebecois member for Boucherville. There was a problem with the mail in their region and, in record time, I was able to reach the president of Canada Post, Mr. André Ouellet, who called me back immediately to rectify the situation.
I would also like to mention the wonderful co-operation of the Union of Postal Workers. The corporation had just come through a strike and yet, a few weeks later, the union and management worked together.
I must point out, however, that the Liberal government refused to agree with the Bloc Quebecois' arguments regarding elimination of the qualifying period, the first two weeks of penalty for unemployed workers. In this regard, I call on the Minister of Human Resources Development to meet as soon as possible with the coalition of MPs from regions affected by the storm, composed of members of the Bloc Quebecois and two Progressive Conservative MPs.
This criticism aside, however, the co-operation between Ottawa and Quebec City was, on the whole, exemplary and our two governments responded to the call. This does not mean attention should not be called to problems. It is our democratic role and our role as the opposition to do so. That is why we are paying special attention to farmers, especially owners of maple sugar operations and apple growers, as well as manufacturers.
Quebeckers can count on the Bloc Quebecois to make suggestions to the government regarding measures to ensure that everyone receives equitable assistance. Quebeckers and Canadians will not soon forget the worst ice storm in their history. To a certain extent, we have all emerged changed from this catastrophe.
We have become aware, for instance, of how tremendously dependent we are on electricity. We have realized that we are never alone in times of trouble.
I would like to pay tribute to the wonderful support of the Quebec government, and of its leader, Premier Lucien Bouchard, who laid out the facts and took the necessary measures. I also wish to commend the president of Hydro-Québec, André Caillé, who directed this large corporation during this extraordinary storm.
Given the enormity of the crisis, the Quebec government, which was co-ordinating emergency measures, managed the whole situation very well. On behalf of the House, I wish to congratulate them. Once again, I thank all volunteer workers, and assure all victims of our complete solidarity.