Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his address this evening. I also thank other speakers tonight for their very insightful observations about the situation in Haiti. A number of them have been on the ground in Haiti and have had experience in that country. I have been to many countries over the years and some in that region but not in Haiti itself. Therefore, I cannot give an on the ground report as to how I saw the situation.
However, the country is a very poor country and has been for many years. When a country that does not have good resources and good infrastructure to begin with and then visit upon it a devastating earthquake, such as the one we saw last year, and, on top of that, the whole issue of political instability and the cholera outbreak, it is a recipe for a worsening disaster than what it currently has in its hands.
We have seen governments in the past respond to international tragedies that have occurred and all goes well for a little while when the issue is in the news and then it disappears from the news and we go on to another issue and the countries are left to fend for themselves. In this case, a lot of good has happened so far this year with Canadians responding in larger numbers than we have seen in many years and the government adding the matching funds idea, which I gather was not necessarily its idea. I think it has been tried before but it was a very well timed offer and as a result the government has indicated it has raised about $400 million through that effort, which is very positive. Now the issue is how it should be allocated or spent.
I believe the member for Edmonton Centre said that we do not want to be quick about allocating the funds because we want to ensure we get full value for our dollar. One of the reasons we are having a harder time raising donations from the public in all sorts of different charitable efforts is that the public in some ways has questions about how the money is being spent. People would like to have some feedback on how their money is spent. This could be a very good test case. The government and the minister should take it upon themselves to issue a report on how things are going with the donations that people have made. If people who contributed $100 or $200 to aid were to get some feedback on precisely what happened to their money, I think they would be much more willing to contribute once again the next year.
Given the magnitude of the problem and the fact that the situation in Haiti is getting worse, the proper approach would be for the Prime Minister to use his offices and his various channels to get world leaders to look at Haiti in the same way that the free world dealt with Europe and Japan after the Second World War. Every member in this chamber knows how much destruction there was in Europe and in Japan during the Second World War and yet, miracle of miracles, after the war we saw a full recovery in Europe and a recovery in Japan to the point where they became world powers in short order.
The question is, how did that come about? That came about with a concerted plan and, of course, a lot of money. The reconstruction of those devastated areas was done very successfully. Why do we not have the ability in this country collectively to replicate in a small way that experience?
In China there was an earthquake last year. I saw a CBC report, which I mentioned to the minister earlier today, where a Chinese official was giving a glowing report about Canada's participation in the reconstruction in China. The Chinese have a plan. Their plan is to reconstruct the buildings that I guess were built of brick and steel which were susceptible to collapse in earthquake conditions. The brick and steel are being replaced with Canadian lumber. To me that is a win-win situation. It will help us deal with our lumber issues. More important, on a long-term basis it will help the Chinese rebuild the cities that were devastated by the earthquake. When another earthquake comes about in the future, as it will, we will not be repeating the mistakes of the past.
A Conservative member talked about a church group that he is familiar with that has developed a new type of housing that they are looking at for the Haiti situation. I forget how he described the housing, but it certainly makes sense to me that it would be earthquake resistant and hurricane resistant. That is another liability the islands have in the Caribbean. For whatever it is costing them to put this housing together, that is a plus. To me, if it takes a few extra months to get it right and if we can rebuild in a smart way using best practices, then we are going to do well in the future.
Habitat for Humanity is very active. Former President Carter is involved in this. He has been involved in Habitat for Humanity in Winnipeg, rebuilding. I read all of the backgrounder information on the Haitian earthquake and it seems that almost every organization in the world is there. All of this is good because they can offer their expertise.
The question is, is anyone coordinating their efforts? Is there an overall plan? I am sure there is, it is just that I am not familiar with what overall plan would be.
The point is that we have to not only harness all those resources to get the job done and get it done right, but when stories come back to us out of the country about money that is stolen and misspent and construction that is done in a poor fashion, that is negative to our efforts for the future, because what happens is we lose support for the efforts we are trying to develop, in this case in Haiti.
I know my colleagues mentioned earlier, because I read Hansard, that no solution is going to work without getting the Haitians involved. I do agree that we cannot force a solution on them, and now they are in a political upheaval.
We cannot let the situation deteriorate to the point where there is anarchy in the country. If we follow this through and there is a breakdown of authority in the country, then it will have to resort to a military situation. I do not think we want to go there. We are not headed on the right track. Why are we having this problem? My guess is that people are waiting for results.
I have seen some news reports that indicate people are still living in conditions similar to those in refugee camps. Perhaps they may be safer than they would be in their houses if there were to be aftershocks or another earthquake. However, it cannot be a healthy situation for people to live there on a long-term basis.
The member who made the request for an emergency debate tonight was absolutely correct in his assessment of what needs to be done. It is important that we involve ourselves in the debate this evening. The question is what the final resolution will be out of the debate. If we simply have a debate and nothing happens afterward, then we have not really solved the problem.
I would have preferred to hear more concrete suggestions as to what should be done in this situation. It would have been good to have some sort of plan put forward by the Liberal Party, as a Liberal member made the request for the emergency debate. Maybe some option should have been given to the government as to where we should go from here.
Has the matching funds program run its course? I am not sure. I asked the member for the statistics and he gave them to me as best he could, but I do not know if the matching funds are still coming in or whether the program is finished. People are not thinking about it any more and have ceased donating.
What will be the status of the matching funds next year? Even though the situation might be as bad or even worse next year, are we looking at essentially no matching funds? As far as the people of Canada are concerned, it is already a past issue. It is a year old. They have given their $100 or $200 and have got their tax receipts. They have done their bit.
Where are the people in Haiti going to be one year down the road? Where are they going to be two years down the road? Are we simply perpetuating a situation that has existed for a long time and providing a band-aid solution? I have not heard any solutions yet from members of the opposition or the government. It has been more of an information gathering exercise to get an update as to where things are.
I want to indicate concern for the cholera outbreak. I am always interested when my hon. colleague from the Liberal Party participates in debates. I cannot remember her riding. She sponsored a debate recently on multiple sclerosis. She makes excellent speeches. I know she has been concerned about this issue as well
With the cholera outbreak on top of all the other problems in the country right now, this is not a very good situation. We have to get on top of that. The construction can wait a bit, but the cholera outbreak should be job one at this point. It has to be dealt with on a priority basis. Perhaps that is where the emphasis should be, that we deal with the cholera outbreak. We try to deal with the political instability there and get through that. Regarding the long term, I believe the minister is meeting with Hillary Clinton as we speak in Quebec and perhaps they will be addressing this issue. Perhaps they should be looking at a longer term solution in terms of major reconstruction.
We have to recognize that the world has been hit with a huge recession in the last couple of years. There are economies in Europe, such as Iceland, declaring bankruptcy. Ireland is in bad shape, as are Portugal, Greece and Spain. The United States is not in very healthy condition either. It might be a tough sell to be pushing a new version of the Marshall plan on these leaders at this point.
In the case of the Great Depression, members will know that the world economy languished in recession and depression for 10 years until a war started. All of a sudden there was a war and we were out of recession because we were building armaments and out shooting one another again. Maybe what is needed is a war, but a new type of war, a war on poverty. We could certainly start with Haiti's situation and put resources into Haiti to redevelop the country.
It brings me to another point. I have been in Mexico and Cuba many times over the years, and I can say that constructing buildings in Mexico or Cuba is not the same as building them in Winnipeg or Ottawa. In Winnipeg or Ottawa, buildings need a lot of insulation because of the very cold weather. In countries like Cuba and Haiti, they do not have that problem of having to build the buildings to deal with cold temperatures. My guess is that the construction costs on a per unit basis are very low when we are dealing with countries like those.
I think the minister is nodding but my eyesight is not what it used to be, so I cannot tell for sure whether he is nodding in agreement, but the costs are just not there in the same way they are in the northern climates. I do not know what the cost is for putting up mass units in these countries, especially when the profit motive is taken out of it. China has certainly been active, for example, in Cuba. The Chinese, in the last few years, brought brand new fridges into Cuba and basically delivered them to people's houses by the thousands. It was part of China's foreign aid program.
When we look at it on a non-profit basis, we look at where it is, we look at mass production, it seems to me that we should be getting a lot better value for our dollar than we apparently have been getting in the past.