Madam Speaker, I appreciate that response. I would ask the parliamentary secretary, or perhaps his minister, to get in touch with the mayors of Princeton and Merritt to hear their trials and tribulations first-hand.
I would like to broaden the discussion, as the member did, into the future. In my short time as an MP, I have seen serious flooding occur several times in my riding alone. Those floods are happening more often across the country, as he said. Wildfires are happening with increasing frequency and increasing levels of destruction. The heat dome last summer killed hundreds of Canadians.
We have talked in this place about the future cost of climate change and the cost of inaction, but we are living that cost right now. Those costs will not be going down in our lifetime; they will only continue to rise. It is time the government realizes that we must not only fight climate change, but also set aside significant funds for communities large and especially small to protect their—