Mr. Speaker, the flooding in the north island highlights again the inadequacies of disaster relief. As residents of Newfoundland have already discovered, it may take weeks to learn who will be eligible for financial assistance to rebuild their lives.
Full assessments happen after waters recede, but as people are moving their belongings to higher ground they want to know that financial help is on the way.
When floods happened in Duncan last December, our community was shocked at the news that landlords would not be eligible for assistance. Some tenants lost their homes because their landlords did not have the funds to repair or rebuild.
For first nations, disaster relief assistance should not come at the expense of other programs as it did in Kashechewan where special education funds were used to pay for emergency expenses.
People need to hear today that their federal government will be there to help them when disaster strikes.