Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Chambly—Borduas for this important question that gives us an opportunity to set the record straight on this issue.
To begin, I must say that I heard him offer some criticism of our soldiers. I would like to assure him that the mandate given to the members of the Canadian Forces serving in Montérégie this spring was identical to the mandate given to those serving in other places dealing with flooding. Our soldiers took on the challenge in Montérégie with the same degree of professionalism and the same level of commitment as they do elsewhere and they put a lot of heart into their service. Our soldiers are not indifferent. They are never indifferent to the plight of their fellow Canadians, particularly in times of emergency or natural disaster when the homes and property of families, vulnerable individuals and seniors are in jeopardy.
Over the course of my speech, I would like to remind the hon. member just how hard the Canadian Forces worked to take on the challenge of the flooding in Montérégie. They were extremely flexible and demonstrated an unmatched level of professionalism for which they are very well known both in Quebec and in the other provinces of Canada.
The request was made by the Province of Quebec on May 4. The Canadian Forces began arriving in Montérégie within 8 hours. The advance guard of the contingent that was mobilized to deal with this situation arrived very quickly. The next day, May 5, there were 500 members of the Canadian Forces on site. These individuals were mobilized by the operations group for eastern Canada, which the hon. member knows is based in Montreal.
As the hon. member is surely aware, the water reached peak levels on May 6, 7 and 8 when the Canadian Forces also reached the height of their mobilization at 844 members on site in Montérégie to deal with the devastating flooding.
We are very sympathetic with the plight of those affected by floods in Quebec, but let us also keep in mind that this was an exceptional year with two rounds of flooding in Manitoba and forest fires in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Every response by Canada's armed forces needs to be seen in the context of the national obligations that they have, and this year they were really unprecedented, for reasons that we all know.
In the past year, the Canadian forces supported the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in the aftermath of hurricane Igor, rescued stranded motorists after a violent snowstorm in Ontario, provided security at the Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics, as well as the G8 and G20 summits.
In replying to the member a second time, I would be very happy just to go over some of the details of the intervention that our forces undertook in Montérégie which saved hundreds of homes from further damage and which really prevented a difficult situation, a situation of exceptionally historical high floods from being much worse.