Mr. Speaker, it is an eye-opening statistic that people living on reserve in Canada are 18 times more likely to be evacuated as the result of a natural disaster compared to those living off reserve.
In recent years, thousands of first nations people in my home province of British Columbia, and across the country, have had to evacuate due to wildfires, floods, wind storms and landslides. We have learned from them many of the failures of the emergency management response system, which ignores their knowledge, traditions and experiences.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services please inform the House of the work under way to ensure first nations are made full partners in emergency management—