Mr. Speaker, five years ago the Salmon Arm fire in my riding had British Columbia asking Canada's armed forces to defend B.C. lives, homes and our wood, recreation and tourism base.
I do not need to tell the House about the raging fires which gobbled up so much of B.C. again this summer. Once again, our troops arrived needing training and finally got to the job days later, not due to any shortcoming from those troops. These delays were caused by the government's decision to close the last land forces base in British Columbia, despite all military advice against it.
The biggest federal lesson to learn from this summer's fires is that it takes 48 hours for troops from Edmonton to start protecting southern B.C. Imagine what could happen if Vancouver suffers the predicted earthquake.
The 1994 defence white paper needs urgent updating which must include opening a land forces base in British Columbia.