Mr. Speaker, it is certainly a privilege to make some comments tonight on the ice storm of 1998.
I was a farmer for many years, actually for 25 years. I farmed right up until I came to this Chamber in 1988. I am no stranger to some of the ups and downs that are part of the business of agriculture but I do not think any of us were prepared for the crisis that mother nature dealt much of eastern Canada in the early part of this year.
When the ice storm hit and the lights went out, rural areas were particularly hard hit. I am not diminishing the problems and the realities of the urban areas, but the rural areas were hit hard as well.
Indeed almost a month later as we stand here tonight there are people still without power. It is my understanding that the lights will be on by the end of the week. I sincerely hope they are and that that is a reality.
In the week following the several days of ice, I visited many of the affected areas as the minister of agriculture and rural development for Canada. I visited many of the areas in Ontario and Quebec at the time of the crisis. I visited with farm leaders, the Prime Minister and with several of my cabinet colleagues.
I witnessed firsthand the devastation. Not a utility poll was standing for miles along the concessions. Transformers were on the ground. As hard and as good a job as the television and the newspapers did and as hard as they tried, they did a great job but they could not give us the true picture of what it was like.
The destructive forces of mother nature were unbelievable. It is humbling to see those huge transmission towers on the ground like a heap of spaghetti. I spoke with farmers who had already endured the blackout for a number of days. Some of them had their power back on after seven or eight days which most of us would think would be a long time without electricity. And it is, no question.
I also spoke with farmers who were still struggling to keep their generators and their operations going. They were sharing generators. I know in one case an individual was taking a generator to nine different dairy farms. Twice a day the individual made the circle around until they could find enough generators to help.
I used to have one of those generators. They are called stand-by generators. They are built well. There is no question that they are built well, but they are not built to run 24 hours a day for five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve, fifteen days or whatever number of days they had to run.
I saw producers who were hurting and producers who were tired. Their animals were suffering and yes, some of their animals were dying. Some were forced to dump the milk from the dairy operations because the delivery system, the pick-up system, et cetera, just could not work.
Rural businesses were shut down. There are more businesses in rural Canada than just farms. I am not diminishing the inconvenience, the problems and the hurt on the farms but there are a lot of rural businesses out there.
Rural businesses, suppliers to their customers and their communities were spending hundreds of dollars a day. I am not exaggerating. They had generators so that they could provide feed to the livestock operations.
We talk about the just in time service in much of our industrial areas. There is just in time service in poultry operations as well because of the fresh feed that is brought to the farm every two or three days. Those feed manufacturers had to be there.
Residents were taking in neighbours in the urban parts of the communities up and down the concessions. I must say that one of the things that impressed me so much was the sense of humour and how everybody kept their chin up.
I am not being flippant about it but I had a couple of people say that there will not be a family reunion this year. They had 15 or 20 members of their family in their home already for six or seven days and they probably will not need a family reunion this year.
The people did rally around each other, not only neighbours but friends, family, volunteer firemen, service clubs, church, municipal governments, provincial governments, the federal government as well as people from communities across the border.
I saw utility crews from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Detroit and I could go on. There were a number of them. There were hydro crews in Ontario from all over the province of Ontario. There were hydro crews in Quebec from all over the province of Quebec. Everybody converged there to help.
I have to talk about leaving my riding on the Sunday night at the end of the storm. I was driving out of the city of Belleville and my wife asked why all the trucks were at the hotel. I drove there.
I am not embarrassed to say that tears ran down my face. I counted 100 utility trucks from Detroit Edison in that parking lot. They had already driven 375 miles and they had to drive 200 miles more before they got to the ice storm. That was hands across the border.
I took the opportunity a few days later when I had a meeting with my counterpart in the United States, Secretary Dan Glickman, to thank him not only for that but for the co-operation between the people in our department of agriculture and our food inspection agency and the USDA and the U.S. Food and Drug Agency. Within hours they took action to make arrangements for milk to go into the United States to be processed there and come back into Canada as a processed product. Milk was also moved into the maritimes and into other areas of Quebec and Ontario.
I have admiration for the perseverance, for the resourcefulness and for the community spirit and pride. It is something we can all be proud of.
The disaster assistance arrangement with the provinces will go a long way. I point out that it has to be kicked in by the provinces and that is happening. Our department is working every day with the provinces. We talked every day from the Tuesday when the ice storm started with the people in the UPA in Quebec, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture in Ontario, the Quebec ministry of agriculture and the Ontario ministry of agriculture to do all we possibly could.
The hurt is not over yet. We know that. It will be there for a while. The worst is over but the clean up is yet to come. For example, the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association estimates that in eastern Ontario where the storm hit between 50% to 90% of the sugar maples were damaged. In the province of Quebec over 30% were damaged. I saw maple syrup bushes, and I am not exaggerating, where the trees were only utility poles. That is all that is left. I know that mother nature is a great healer. Time will tell whether mother nature can bring those trees back.
Just this morning I am sure a number of us heard a couple of maple producers on CBC talking about their having to figure out how to deal with the aftermath. There are a lot of specialists out there and everybody has come forward. A lot of livestock died but numbers do not tell the story.
People came together. We drove over 3,000 kilometres encouraging people and thanking people. I stopped along the road to thank utility crews from Pennsylvania as well as our own army for helping with community activities. In one small town there was a Salvation Army disaster unit at one end of the street. There is one in Toronto and one in Montreal. This one was from Toronto. The volunteer firemen and the army were there. They were feeding people in the shelter. It was absolutely heart warming to see.
Communities will be stronger after this storm. I think our country will be stronger. As I said a number of times it is not the method of choice to get stronger but our country will be stronger.
I was touched. Each day I talked with my family back home. The storm only missed our riding by 50 miles. I saw militia people with pick axes and sledge hammers breaking cables out of the ice so that the utility crews could put them back up a little faster.
I have another lighter story which I am sure some members have heard. When I was with the prime minister in Winchester, Ontario, a dairy farmer told him that a member of the Canadian army helped him do his milking. The soldiers had brought the generator to the farm and had to wait so that they could take it to another farm. One of them said “I am not doing anything right now while I wait. I might as well help you do your milking”. Our military is there whenever and wherever we need them. I am proud.
As I close my comments tonight I say a great big thanks. There is no way we can stand here and thank everyone. I thank the people for being patient. I thank the people for being understanding. I thank them for keeping their chins up. I thank the people from all over Canada.
I take this opportunity tonight to thank the people in my riding of Prince Edward—Hastings. As all Canadians did in the Saguenay situation and during the Red River flood, we opened our hearts, as Canadians know how to do, and our pocketbooks. We provide hard goods, soft goods, food and prayers for people in such situations when needed.
I give a big thanks to everyone. It will take a while yet to get over it, but with the determination of me, my colleagues, the House and all other Canadians we will do it.