Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by saying what a very great honour and very great pleasure it is for me to take part in this debate.
As I heard my colleagues speaking about this terrible ice storm, it brought back memories, some painful of course, but also some highly emotion-charged ones, because during those long days of cold and darkness we experienced a warmth, a solidarity within the affected population, one rarely equalled in the past.
If I may, I will take advantage of these preliminary minutes to salute the populations affected, to salute their courage, their exemplary patience during this emergency situation.
I would also like to salute the volunteers who worked long hours for many days to help the disaster victims, although in very many cases they were victims themselves, with problems in their own homes, collapsed roofs, burst pipes, and concerns about finding accommodation for their own families.
I would also like to salute, to congratulate, to thank, the elected officials and employees of the 12 municipalities in my riding, which I will list if I may: Boucherville, Sainte-Julie, Varennes, Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Amable, Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu, the villages and the parishes, Calixa-Lavallée, Verchères, and Contrecoeur.
All of us have seen those pictures of the locomotive taken from its tracks and parked in front of the Boucherville city hall in order to supply power to the emergency measures centre. For a few days, this locomotive became the symbol of Boucherville and of the federal riding of Verchères. However, this symbol was first and foremost an illustration of the resourcefulness showed by the people who survived the crisis.
I want to salute the various government officials and my fellow members of Parliament, particularly those of Jonquière, Repentigny, and Kingston and the Islands, who personally contacted me to offer their help.
I also want to salute and to thank Hydro-Quebec workers. In this regard, I would like to recount an anecdote from the Boucherville shelter. In a news conference held twice each day, we provided information to storm victims. At one point, a resident came to the microphone and said: “Madam Mayor, from the comfort of my home I did not really know what a lineman was. Now, I can tell you what it is. I can tell you what it is, and I can tell you that they do a darn good job”.
I would like to thank the members of municipal police forces who took part in this operation, as well as members of the Sûreté du Québec, the RCMP, and the Canadian Armed Forces. I would like to mention the close co-operation between all these groups, which do not necessarily have anything in common that enables them to work well together but which, on this occasion, showed themselves to be strong team players, demonstrating tremendous solidarity that made them very effective in the field.
I would also like to thank all those who took in friends and relatives or sometimes just fellow victims during this dark period.
I would also like to pay tribute to all the people throughout Quebec, in neighbouring provinces, and in the northeastern United States, who came to help out in the affected areas or who sent supplies, vital equipment, firewood, generators, and on and on.
The solidarity shown during this crisis will forever be a source of inspiration, motivation and determination to us.
At the peak of the crisis, over 75% of the federal riding of Verchères was plunged into darkness. My family and I took in relatives for several days until we too fell victim to the power outage and had to leave our home as well.
I would like to take this opportunity to pay special tribute to the team in my riding office who agreed, in completely appalling conditions, to hold the fort and continue to provide service to the public. I say hold the fort because we have worked under conditions that are almost unthinkable: without electricity, without heat, without running water and with only very limited telephone services. I take this opportunity to thank Gaétane Voyer, Hélène Clavet and Pierre-Luc Vallée, who worked selflessly throughout this difficult period.
I think about all those people who are still in the dark, who are still without electricity at this very moment. We have a tendency to see this crisis as a thing of the past. But there are still people who are suffering in the areas affected by the storm. Such is the case in Drummond, in Verchères, in almost the entire Montérégie and central Quebec region, in a large part of the Eastern Townships and eastern Ontario and in part of New Brunswick. In those regions there are still people without electricity. There are still people who desperately need help.
This leads me to reflect on the debate we are having tonight. When I was told there would be an emergency debate on the ice storm, I was happy. I was excited. I was thrilled because holding an emergency debate made sense to me since there were still people who needed our help. If the purpose of this emergency debate is indeed to find ideas and reach a consensus on how to help those who are affected, then I applaud this initiative.
However if, as I have unfortunately heard to some extent this evening, this debate is merely an opportunity to congratulate ourselves and say we did a good job, everything is fine and we are no longer needed, then you can count me out. You can count me out because I do not think that is what we are here for tonight. We are here tonight to find ways to help the people affected by this disaster.
My colleague from Drummond mentioned the terrible difficulties faced by businesses that lost stocks, that lost clients, that lost profits. These businesses need our help.
I am also thinking about those workers who found themselves temporarily out of work. The possibility of having the waiting period waived so they could be handed a first cheque on the spot was so enticing it was reported in the newspapers. There was also a possibility they would not be asked to pay back the amounts by which they were overpaid.
Of course, it may sound somewhat trivial to discuss whether or not those affected by the storm should be asked to pay back overpayments in EI benefits. But you must realize that any unemployed person who had to contend with the roof of his or her home caving in and pipes bursting, causing untold damage, spent whatever little money he or she had available, including the advance payment cheque. These people are now living in the fear of having to pay back the money they received.
We have to show compassion for those who have suffered and are still suffering. I therefore urge this government, and the Minister of Human Resource Development in particular, to be compassionate in making adjustments to the employment insurance plan, which, I agree, is very strictly regulated. The minister does, however, have the discretionary power to make the necessary adjustments to alleviate these people's hardship.
I think there is every reason to take measures to adjust or relax the various assistance programs to which new money has been allocated because of this emergency situation, including the job creation partnership program, the targeted wage subsidy program and the time sharing employment program.
Once again, Mr. Speaker, I urge you and all the members of this House to bear in mind that the crisis is not behind us and that today still we must show that we care about those who were and still are affected by this crisis.
I will conclude on this, hoping that my colleagues will take my lead in asking that the government show compassion for these people.