Mr. Speaker, recent tragic events in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina and the recent earthquake in Kashmir should give us reason to reflect on human impotence in the face of nature's savage wrath.
I know that it has rudely shaken us out of complacency in B.C., because for us it is not a question of whether there will be a massive earthquake in B.C., but when. Unlike Katrina, there will be no warning. It will be sudden and brutal and the lives of 32,000 schoolchildren in certain B.C. schools will be in danger.
These particular schools are not structurally capable of withstanding even a moderate earthquake, so the provincial government has set aside $1.5 billion over 15 years to upgrade schools. Yet scientists tell us we are overdue in B.C. for the big one, so we may not have 15 years.
We can help to speed up the restructuring project by designating B.C. schools as critical infrastructure and putting the funds in place to do so immediately. This presents a real opportunity for our federal government to show its disaster preparedness plan in action.