Madam Speaker, last week I had a question for the Minister of Emergency Preparedness about the recent flooding in the Fraser Valley and in particular in Abbotsford, which touches on my riding. I pointed out in my question that the Sumas Prairie diking system needs repair. We have known that for a long time. That is not news, and we knew that the price tag would be roughly $500 million, which seems like a big amount of money, but the cost to repair it if there was a flood would be significantly higher. Our worst nightmare came to pass a couple of weeks ago.
I was happy to hear the Minister of Emergency Preparedness say that there would be money. The federal government sees the responsibility there, so I hope he brought his chequebook today because I have a specific ask.
Here is a bit of background first. Sumas Prairie used to be Sumas Lake. It is a wetlands area. It was subject to annual flooding twice a year: a spring freshet and, in the fall, heavy rains such as we saw. About 100 years ago, it was diked off, canals were put in and big pumping stations pumped it dry. It is very fertile farmland.
There is another area of Abbotsford, which I am sure the minister is aware of because he visited there recently. It is called the Matsqui district. It is also low-lying land subject to annual flooding, but there is a diking system there. It held back the water this time around. That is a good thing because it is holding back the mighty Fraser. When that breaks, we have a really big problem.
I met with Mayor Braun on the weekend, together with my colleague the member for Abbotsford. We said to him that we were going to be meeting with the Minister of Emergency Preparedness, and asked him what specifically we needed. Mayor Braun said we needed money. Those two diking systems still need to be repaired at roughly $500 million for each of them, and they need to be seismically upgraded. It is a lot of money and I recognize that. Therefore, we are asking for some money.
However, here is a second question for the minister, which is more complicated. We need to negotiate with the United States of America, because the Nooksack River, which runs solely within the state of Washington in Whatcom County, also contributed in a very significant way to the flooding this time.
This is also a problem that we have known about for many years. I read a report recently that talked about the complexity of it. It is complex. It is the harder question, and the harder problem to solve. I wonder what the Minister of Emergency Preparedness says about that.
The first issue is money, and the second is negotiating with the United States.