Mr. Chair, the Philippines is a beautiful country, a country that I have had the opportunity on a number of occasions to visit. The people of the Philippines are individuals one could describe as kind, loving, hard-working, caring, strong in their faith.
In just over 50 years in the province of Manitoba we have seen the individuals of Filipino heritage go from no existence to over 70,000 and that is just in the province of Manitoba, a province of 1.2 million people. Nationwide over 700,000 people are here today of Filipino heritage.
It is no wonder that when disaster occurs in the Philippines, we have such a wonderful reaction of caring attitudes and the need for us to be able to help. What is so nice to see is that the community that is relatively new over the last 50-plus years has touched lives in every aspect of our society, and as a result, Canadians as a whole are sympathetic to what we are seeing in the Philippines.
Whether it is President Aquino, or the congressmen, or the mayors, the local governors, the congress or the barangay captains, those individuals need to know that across the ocean a country known as Canada truly cares and wants to help. That is what the debate here this evening is about.
Last week a member from Etobicoke and I were talking about an emergency debate in the House. When we came back from the break we suggested we should move forward and we were very glad that we were able to come up with the compromise of having a take-note debate here this evening.
We need to demonstrate that we are listening to our communities. Our communities want us to tell the people of the Philippines that we care, that we want to be able to help in a very real and tangible way.
On my first day back I was afforded the opportunity to make a statement on behalf of my caucus and this is what I said:
...the Philippines were devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. Each day, the extent of the destruction becomes clearer. Thousands of lives have been lost, many more have been hurt and hundreds of thousands have lost everything.
Over 700,000 people of Filipino heritage call Canada home, and thousands more are here from the Philippines working, studying and visiting in Canada.
The tragedy in the Philippines has touched us all. Canadians care. In a meeting that I hosted with the leader of the Liberal Party and members of the Filipino community, it was made clear that Canada should continue to look at the ways beyond just donating money and providing military support to the Philippines. Speeding up immigration along with assisting the current and expiring working, visiting and student visas is important too.
We must continue to support the community after the international media moves away. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we are thankful for the tireless work of aid and emergency workers who are there around the clock.
On behalf of the Liberal Party, I extend our condolences and prayers to those who have been personally affected by Typhoon Haiyan.
There were others that followed and one statement that was prior to this. Members of all political stripes have stood in their places to acknowledge the tragedy that has occurred.
Earlier today I was at the Philippine Embassy here in Ottawa and I was provided with an update. I applaud the efforts of individuals, whether they are from the embassy or the consulates, whether they are in Toronto, Winnipeg or other areas.
This is right up to date as of 6 p.m., November 20, 2013: 4,011 individuals were reported dead; 18,557 injured; and 1,602 are still missing. A total of 2,150,925 families, or 10,008,955 people were affected in 10,736 barangays, that is communities.
It has been overwhelming. The bottom line is that we want the Philippines to know that Canadians care and we are going to be there for them because we are a country that recognizes the importance of a great nation.