Debates of June 5th, 2023

Sitting Resumed

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Before I give the floor back to the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona, I will just remind the hon. member that we do not mention if people are or are not in the House, directly or indirectly.

The hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Madam Speaker, to be clear, I was only throwing shame at one party in the House of Commons. I was not passing it around equally.

I have children; I have teenagers. One of the things I want desperately is for them to want to stay in Alberta. I want them to want to raise their families in Alberta. I want Alberta to have a strong economy, a strong health care system, a strong education system and a strong system that makes our communities thrive.

Frankly, I think this budget does so much more to help people with affordability issues. It does so much more to help Canadians than the Conservatives asking the Speaker to read 900 amendments into the record today.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague on her speech. Anyone can see how passionate she is and how much she cares about her constituents.

I was also glad to hear her say that, even though the election in Alberta did not necessarily go the way she would have liked, she still respects the democracy that was expressed in Alberta. They elected a premier who, while not her choice, was nonetheless democratically elected by Albertans. That is good, because the Bloc Québécois believes that it is important to respect democracy, as well as the authority and jurisdiction of the Quebec National Assembly and the legislative assemblies of the other provinces. Alberta's democracy has spoken.

I would like to ask my colleague a question. Governments express their priorities through the budget choices they make. I am having trouble understanding something, and I hope she can explain it to me. How can she support a budget that contains no measures to support seniors, no increase in the OAS benefits for seniors aged 65 and over?

The government is creating two classes of seniors. By supporting the budget, my colleague is endorsing the idea that seniors under 75 do not need assistance.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Madam Speaker, my colleague's question is a good one. I would go back to what I said in my speech. This is not a perfect piece of legislation, and it is not what the New Democratic Party would have brought forward.

However, when I look at seniors in my riding, I know how much it is going to help them to have dental care be part of our reality in Canada. I know how much it is going to help seniors to have investments in housing. Those things are going to help seniors in my riding deeply. It is impossible for me to turn my back on those seniors at this time.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak to yet another inflationary, irresponsible Liberal budget that claims to rein in inflation, yet actually does the complete opposite.

The Liberals even claim that it is a made-in-Canada plan, while they continue their attack on workers' paycheques. Thanks to their irresponsible spending, Canadians from coast to coast to coast have found themselves bringing home less and less. People are lining up at food banks to put food on the table. Young people have given up hope of ever owning a home. Even the Parliamentary Budget Officer has flagged several issues in the budget, ranging from a meagre economic outlook in the coming years to lack of fiscal transparency and an incoming recession. The Liberal government has had eight long years to step up for Canadians, but, despite managing to spend more than all past prime ministers combined, its chronic fiscal mismanagement and reckless policies have left Canadians struggling.

Canadians continue to watch prices soar, from food to fuel, home heating and even housing prices. Making ends meet through the cost of living crisis has become impossible. Despite all this, the government continues to hike the carbon tax and the excise tax on alcohol, against the interests of hard-working Canadians. Enough is enough.

The Liberal government has had eight years to step up for Canadians, but it is now time for it to step down and for common-sense Conservative solutions to be enacted to truly help Canadians across the country. As Conservatives, we set these three conditions for our support of budget 2023: It must bring home powerful paycheques, with lower taxes, so hard work pays off again. It must bring home lower prices by eliminating the inflationary carbon tax and deficits. Finally, it must bring homes that young people can afford by removing gatekeepers and speeding up the construction and affordability of housing.

The Liberals have rolled out over $43 billion of inflationary spending and senseless tax grabs that would burden Canadians from coast to coast. After eight years of the Liberal government, we all see how its solutions simply do not work. Conservatives have the right solutions that do work, so paycheques will work for the Canadians who do the work.

I am proud to say that Conservatives will not support this budget, and here is why: The Liberals' budget 2023 continues the Liberals' war on work, dedicated workers and workers' paycheques. Instead of listening to struggling Canadians suffering under the worst affordability crisis they have ever seen, the Liberals continue with their reckless, inflationary spending, while increasing taxes. This means that workers are punished for working hard and take home even less of their paycheques.

The government's inflationary spending has caused the cost of groceries to skyrocket, leaving one in five Canadians skipping meals or relying on food banks. The misleading grocery rebate would only give $234 for a single adult to cover the rising cost of living, which the Liberal government's reckless spending caused. Canada's food price report 2023 predicts that a family of four will spend up to $1,065 more on food this year, which is drastically higher than the $467 grocery rebate that they will receive.

On April 1, the Liberal government hiked the senseless carbon tax, costing the average family between $402 and $847 in 2023, even after the rebates. The government also continues to raise taxes on still-recovering restaurants and breweries by increasing the excise tax on alcohol by 2%. The temporary cap in the hikes of the alcohol excise tax is only valid for a year, and it is not enough.

The Liberal policies of hiking taxes and clawing back money that should remain in the pockets of Canadians in the first place must end. Conservatives will prioritize fixing what the Liberals broke by ensuring powerful paycheques and opportunities for the people who do the work. The down payment that is necessary nowadays for an average home has doubled after eight years of the Liberal government. We believe in bringing homes young people can afford so that they do not continue to live in their parents' basements because they have given up on their dreams of home ownership.

Back when the Liberals first took office, the average rent in Canada for a one-bedroom apartment was $973. After eight years of the current government, the price has skyrocketed to $1,760. The average mortgage and rent payments have also nearly doubled since the Liberals took office, increasing to $3,100 from what was once $1,400.

Before the Liberals took office, Canadians only needed 39% of the average paycheque to make monthly payments on the average house. After eight long years of Liberal recklessness, this number has risen to 62%, leaving Canadians with way less of their paycheques to spend on other necessities.

The Liberal government has not outlined any plans to get rid of the gatekeepers and get more affordable housing built. Its inflationary spending and misguided policies have left people giving up on home ownership. Conservatives believe in building a country with homes people can actually afford by getting rid of the gatekeepers, freeing up land, speeding up building permits and getting shovels in the ground to get affordable housing built. While the Liberal government continues to overspend and overtax, we will continue to prioritize the interests of hard-working Canadians by getting affordable housing built fast.

Eight long years of the Liberal government has brought nothing but reckless inflationary spending, senseless tax hikes and irresponsible policies, leading to the worst affordability crisis Canadians have ever seen. Canadians from coast to coast to coast have found themselves bringing home less. People are lining up at food banks to put food on the table. Young people have given up the hope of ever owning a home. Even the Parliamentary Budget Officer has flagged several issues in the budget, ranging from the meagre economic outlook in the coming years to a lack of fiscal transparency and an incoming recession. That is the effect of the Liberal government, which has had eight long years to step up for Canadians. Now is the time for it to step down and adopt our common-sense Conservative solutions to make Canada work for the people who have done the work.

We will continue to demand the following: offering powerful paycheques, with lower taxes, so hard work pays off again; lowering prices by eliminating the inflationary carbon tax and deficits; and building homes that young people can afford by removing gatekeepers and speeding up the construction of affordable housing.

Because our pragmatic demands were not met, we will not be supporting this inflationary Liberal budget.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade]

Madam Speaker, I want to point out a few factual clarifications of things that have been said by a number of Conservative members.

Canada currently has the lowest deficit in the G7. Canada has the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7. Canada still maintains its AAA credit rating. These things are factual.

What is also factual is that the member is from Alberta, which is going through a very difficult time right now. I feel for the people whom he represents in terms of the wildfires we are seeing. Those severe and acute weather events are related to climate action.

I would put to the member that now is not the time to make polluting free. Does he agree?

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Madam Speaker, through you to the member, we are not saying that we have an issue with the climate crisis; we are saying we have an issue with the Liberals' tax plan, which has nothing to do with protecting the environment. They are collecting more money, which is leaving Canadians a lot less, yet they are meeting zero emissions targets. How is their tax plan, and so-called environmental plan, helping the environment? It is not.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, the member for Yellowhead mentioned gatekeepers, as a lot of Conservatives do. When I heard the Conservative leader give a speech on the budget last year, he gave a 20-minute speech entirely on gatekeepers and did not mention a single federal gatekeeper in his whole speech.

The member for Yellowhead mentioned gatekeepers around providing housing. I am wondering if he could point out where the federal gatekeepers are in that program.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Madam Speaker, I have to admit that it is not necessarily just a federal issue. When we talk about gatekeepers, it does not matter which level of government it is.

For the most part, when it comes to zoning and restructuring building plans, it usually falls under municipal government acts that, because of the policies they have sometimes created, need to be amended and addressed because we are not building the homes that need to be built. The money seems to be put in the budget, yet the homes are not getting built. Why is that? It is because the policies and programs offered by municipalities a lot of times do not warrant the quick and speedy building of homes.

That is the big problem when I talk about gatekeepers. We need to address that to get homes that Canadians can live in built.

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to follow up with the question I asked another Conservative colleague about reconciling the fiscal restraint he mentioned with the fact that the government has invested an additional $3 billion in Trans Mountain, bringing its total investment to $30 billion. His colleague said that there was absolutely no need for the government to buy Trans Mountain.

I would be interested to hear what my colleague has to say about that, because had the government not done it, Trans Mountain would no longer exist. The logic seems to be flawed.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Madam Speaker, there is absolutely no reason for the government to buy a pipeline. The only reason it did so was because of its own policies, which created the issue. If this pipeline had been built by the contractor and the company, we would not have seen a $30-billion increase to the project. That is an outstanding amount, which is ridiculous, and no private industry would have ever built this pipeline for that kind of money.

This is, once again, the government's ineptness in getting projects done in Canada. First, they are hugely overrun and probably would have been built by now, but Liberal policies, such as Bill C-69, have stopped pipelines from being built in Canada, and they are intentionally causing the high costs to make sure Canadians think it is ridiculous and a pipeline will never get built again. They are right. If the government owned the pipeline, we will never own it. That is why it should go back to the private sector, where it belongs. The government should never have been involved in the private sector for pipelines.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, there were promises in the 2015 election campaign from the Liberals of a small deficit for one year and then a return to balanced budgets, but what has been delivered is something totally different. We have seen eight years of inflationary spending, and now the government is signalling that it will never return to a balanced budget and will continue its out-of-control spending as long as it can. Hopefully, we can end that soon.

If that were not bad enough, to go along with these massive deficits, we are seeing increasing interest rates in an attempt to rein in the skyrocketing inflation the deficits have caused. Compile all of this, and it spells bad news for Canadians. Canada's debt is projected to reach $1.22 trillion in fiscal year 2023-24. That is nearly $81,000 of debt per household.

One of the results of this inflationary spending is to cause inflation to go up to the highest rates we have seen in 40 years. The previous high was under a former Liberal government with an out-of-control spending problem. The high inflation rate is resulting in the Bank of Canada raising interest rates to try to rein in inflation, rates that the Liberal government was warned about, but it failed to take the warning. Therefore, now, as a result, we have record high national debt combined with jacked-up interest rates that will see Canada's debt service costs projected to reach $43.9 billion for fiscal year 2023-24.

Can members imagine the good $43.9 billion could do if it were not required to pay just for the debt? That is not to pay off the debt. That is just to pay the annual debt service cost. None of that estimated $43.9 billion would be going to reduce the deficit or the cost in future years. It is only to pay that annual debt service fee. That is $43.9 billion that could have gone to health care, to the nurses, doctors and hospitals where health care workers have been stretched to and beyond their limit. That is $43.9 billion that could have been going to infrastructure projects to improve water and wastewater projects in our communities, indigenous communities and municipalities. That is $43.9 billion that could have gone to transportation projects to help people get to work on time, or $43.9 billion to get homes built. However this $43.9 billion is only going to pay the debt service costs.

I used to ask people at home if they could envision what $20 billion looked like because I myself had trouble envisioning what that looks like. I would get blank stares or heads shaking back, and so I would ask them if they can imagine what five $100 bills would look like in their hand. They would say, “Yes, I can picture five $100 bills.” I said that is what $20 billion is to every living Canadian, every infant, every youth, every adult, every senior and every veteran. It is five $100 bills in debt. That was what the $20-billion deficits were causing. Now we are seeing $40-billion deficits.

Wildfires in Canada

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

It being 10 p.m., pursuant to an order made on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, the House will now proceed to the consideration of a motion to adjourn the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter requiring urgent consideration, namely the wildfire situation across Canada.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

moved:

That this House do now adjourn.

Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Edmonton Griesbach.

I would like to thank the Speaker for granting my request for an emergency debate on the urgent and escalating wildfire situation across Canada.

I want to say first that our hearts are with the 120,000 Canadians who have been forced to flee their homes this year, 30,000 of whom are still out of their homes, and even more so with the many hundreds who have lost everything in these wildfires. I thank the firefighters on land and in the air for their brave and dangerous work in keeping all of us safe.

More than 400 fires are burning right now across the country from Vancouver Island to Nova Scotia. More than 3.6 million hectares of forest have been torched. Today, for the first time in my eight years as an MP, I woke to smoky skies in Ottawa, a sight I know only too well from my home in British Columbia, but it was a first for me here, and it is only the first week of June. We have a long and hot fire season ahead of us.

Local and provincial first responders have already been overwhelmed in Alberta, Nova Scotia and Quebec. It is clear that we need to re-evaluate the federal role in wildfire protection and response to develop a more proactive process instead of the present reactive one. We must do much of this as quickly as possible in the next few weeks before summer truly arrives. This process and support to affected parts of the country should be informed by the urgent debate of Parliament, and that is why we are here late at night debating this critically important topic.

This has been a wildfire season like no other. The area burned so far is 10 times the annual average. How many times have we heard that over the last decade? How many summers have been described as the “worst ever” for forest fires?

I was listening to Dr. Mike Flannigan, a wildfire expert from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops on the radio a couple of days ago, and he made some important comments that I will be repeating here tonight. One of the most important was his comment that this weather, these fire seasons, are not the new normal. He said that we are in a downward spiral when it comes to climate change and wildfire behaviour, and that our fight against climate change is a fight to keep things from getting worse and worse.

A paper published in the journal of Environmental Research Letters last month found that about 40% of the wildfires we are experiencing every year in North America can be directly attributed to the fossil fuel industry and its impact on climate change. However, while we are fighting climate change to keep things from getting worse, we must adapt to the changes that are already upon us because these changes are essentially permanent, since carbon dioxide takes centuries to leave the atmosphere, and those changes include more frequent and more intense wildfires.

An essential part of that adaptation will be an increased role for the federal government to play in wildfire management. First, we need to train and maintain crews of firefighters who will help us attack fires rapidly before they explode out of control. Second, we need to maintain a national stockpile of equipment that can be quickly sent to affected provinces so that we are not wasting valuable days while a fire or a cluster of fires gets out of hand. This could also include a squadron of water bombers that could be deployed quickly wherever they are needed. Third, we need better coordination of both resources and manpower. Finally, we need to work between fire seasons to reshape the forest surrounding our communities so that interface fires will not have the same destructive effects that they have today. I would like to cover all of these points in more detail, starting with firefighters.

Firefighters on the ground are the heart and soul of wildfire fighting in Canada. Wildfires are fought by both professional and volunteer crews based in small communities across the country. When I go to fire lines in my riding, I see crews from all over British Columbia. I want to thank those 90,000 volunteer firefighters from across Canada for that work, which goes completely unpaid. I want to put in a plug here for Bill C-310 from my NDP colleague for Courtenay—Alberni, which would provide more tax relief for volunteer firefighters.

Increasingly, international crews are coming to help us as we have helped other countries in the past. When I was in Chile for a parliamentary visit in March, there were Canadian personnel and equipment fighting fires there during the worst fire season that it ever had.

We need to consider the idea of creating a national firefighting service. Michael Flannigan has suggested that 20 crews of 20 firefighters each would be a great help in getting onto fires quickly. That rapid initial attack is the key to fighting wildfires. Once a fire gets beyond a few hectares in hot, dry windy weather, it very quickly becomes an unmanageable monster that can only be tamed by a change in weather or a change in the season.

Once tamed, they are actually put out by boots on the ground, with teams of firefighters doing the hard, dirty, hot work. A quick response with water bombers, skimmers filling from nearby lakes and helicopters bucketing water from ponds and temporary reservoirs can knock down small fires quickly. I have seen it happen from my back deck at home, since I live only a couple of kilometres from one of the main air bases for firefighting in British Columbia.

Too often, I have had bombers and helicopters fly low overhead as they fight fires in the forests and grasslands around my home in Penticton.

Prompt bombing with retardant dropped by larger planes, and the latest ones to arrive in Penticton are part of a new fleet of Dash 8-400s, can help set boundary containment for big fires but, again, that on-the-ground work is essential to really putting the fires out. We need quicker access to essential firefighting equipment that is available to regions in need. We saw that need last week in Nova Scotia, when local and provincial resources were overtaxed very quickly with wildfires on the outskirts of Halifax.

The federal government provided material but it took a couple of days to find that material and get it to the firefighters.

I would like to turn now to how we coordinate our efforts nationally and how we must be anticipating where fires will break out rather than reacting after a wave of thunderstorm cells paint the countryside with fires set in tinder-dry forests. Our weather forecasting is accurate enough to tell us with near certainty the general temperature and, to a lesser extent, the weekly precipitation trends across Canada.

This year, we knew the fire season would be extraordinary, after record-setting temperatures in almost all parts of the country. We should develop programs that develop the teams of firefighters and equipment they need and then use careful but prompt planning decisions to put all of that in place in at-risk parts of the country before firestorms break out.

We have to properly fund FireSmart programs to thin the forests that interface with our communities and even the trees and shrubs around our own homes, to reduce the chance of homes and infrastructure being lost to wildfire.

The community of Logan Lake, British Columbia literally saved itself in 2021 with a concerted program of forest thinning, FireSmarting backyards and even rooftop sprinkler systems. It can be done. Logan Lake worked at it for over 20 years but on the big scale needed it will take a lot of effort and, quite frankly, a lot of money. The federal government can and should play a big role there.

Things have changed dramatically in the forest fire situation in the last 50 years. When I was going to school in the 1960s in the Okanagan Valley, there were only two serious wildfires in a dozen years. Now we have several every year. This year, we have seen that pattern spread across the country, with huge destructive fires in the maritime forests of Nova Scotia and fires in the rainforests of Vancouver Island.

Wildfires are changing and wildfires are changing our lives. We must change, as well, in our response to these growing threats. The provinces have been doing admirable work in fire-prone parts of the country but it is clear from our experience so far this spring that no part of the country is immune from wildfire. The federal government must step up to provide necessary leadership for the future.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Madam Speaker, I want to reiterate what he said about firefighters and the amazing work that they are doing and thank them for that work.

I would also like to take the opportunity, while I am standing, to thank the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces, who are on the ground in every province that is experiencing these horrible fires right now.

He talked a bit about the work that the provinces are doing. I want to just make sure that the House knows that 60% of the missions that we have right now in defence are aid to civil authority. That has been the case for the last couple of years.

I would suggest that we are stepping up, that we are supporting where these climate emergencies are happening, whether it be fires, floods or hurricanes and hurricane Fiona.

Does the member believe that the provinces are pulling their weight and are doing their fair share to prepare for these inevitable climate events?

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I think the provinces are certainly pulling their own weight.

Some provinces, like British Columbia, have been facing this for longer and more intensely than others, and have put more resources into it. For provinces like Nova Scotia, this is a new thing, so they are in a different place. The provinces have really been stepping up, but one difference between the provinces and the federal government is that they have less of an ability to invest large sums of money into projects and issues like this. The federal government is in a place where we could really help in a national sense.

The hon. member mentioned the Armed Forces stepping in. It would be a good idea to have a special force that would be there to fight fires and deal with other emergencies, a force that is specially trained exactly for that.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I first want to reiterate all my best wishes in solidarity with every community that has been affected in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada because of the current crisis. I understand that this is an important topic. It is actually urgent.

When the NDP requested this emergency debate this evening, the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie said that the federal government should do more and do better, including with respect to planning, training and accessibility to equipment.

I am not sure whether my colleague could inform me about the situation in his home province, because in Quebec, as far as I know, the federal government's response has been swift. I am not saying that the government is perfect, but when Minister Bonnardel in Quebec City asked for help from the Canadian Armed Forces, it took only a few hours for the Minister of Emergency Preparedness to accept the request and send boots on the ground. All in all, crisis management seems to be going well so far.

That may not be the case in the rest of Canada. I would like my colleague to say a few words about that.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, provinces are doing well. British Columbia has been facing large forest fire seasons, and since 2015 there has been a relentless series of bad forest fire seasons.

In British Columbia we have developed programs, techniques and processes that gradually get better. There are always things to learn about how to deal with people who have been forced out of their homes. That part of the process has been very disrupting to families, to people. We have learned a lot in British Columbia about that process. We are learning a lot about communication between different teams in the field. There are always things we can learn from each other—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

I have time for one more question.

The hon. member for Kitchener Centre.

[Mike Morrice, Green, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, I will start by thanking the member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay for his part in making sure that this debate on these climate-fuelled wildfires came to the floor of the House.

As a biologist, I want to ask the member about peatlands specifically. These are bogs, fens and swamps. I ask about them, because this is one of the feedback loops we need to be mindful of in this climate crisis. Peatlands are only 3% of the world's mass, but they have one-third of the stored carbon.

Could the member talk about the impacts of drained peatlands and wildfires, and how wildfires in peatlands could exacerbate exponentially the climate crisis that we are in?

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I could talk about this for a long time, but I have 30 seconds. I want to thank the member for Kitchener Centre for that.

Peatlands are extraordinarily important in storing carbon. Also, when they start burning, it is very difficult to put those fires out. They can release huge amounts of carbon dioxide over months as they burn. It is essential that we get at those fires, especially in the boreal forest, very quickly.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Madam Speaker, through you to many of my fellow Albertans, what has been happening in the month of May and what continues to happen across our province is truly devastating. The wildfires, the smoke, the devastation and the loss will be with those families for a long time. I know we will never be able to truly rebuild to the point at which they remember where they have those cultural heirlooms, where they have the things that they raised their children with, where they have the mementos from each of those monuments in their life that they can cherish and keep with them, which are now reduced to ash.

We are with those families. We will do everything in our power to make sure they can rebuild. That is why New Democrats and I are steadfast in our support of indigenous communities that have been hit the hardest by these fires.

I want to extend my personal thanks as well to the many men, women, non-binary and diverse folks who serve in our firefighting teams right across the country, but particularly in Alberta right now, who are risking their lives so that community members can save what they can. They are risking their lives to make sure that children may have a place to go back to. They are risking their lives to make sure that communities stay intact. They are certainly unsung heroes, heroes who go home day after day, covered in ash, who may not hear the thanks and gratitude from families like my own and families I visit.

In 2003, my family endured a wildfire in the northeast part of the province of Alberta. At that time I was just a child, living with my family. In just a short time, a 30-minute wind was able to bring in a fire so large that no crew could even get to it. It brought down forests; it brought down power lines; it stopped roads, and it stopped services. We were stranded. I was alone and I was scared. Me, my mum, my dad and my sister were alone, cut off from all roads, with fallen trees on either side of us. We thought surely this would be it. My dad and my mum prayed.

My dad did what he could. His father had built a barn, and he looked after that barn. Inside that barn were saddles, handmade and passed on from generation to generation, from horse whisperers in my family to some of the best rodeo clowns our province had to offer. That history was reduced, burned to ash while my father was reduced to tears.

I remember being evacuated in the arms of a firefighter. He took me in his hands, and without question I could feel his compassion and his need to save us. He put me in a car, put an oxygen mask on my mouth and told me to close my eyes. He told me to sing a song. “Three times,” he said, “and you'll be okay.”

Two songs in, I realized finally we were escaping the smoke. Although I had left my family behind, I knew that my mother and my father were going to be okay because people like him were with them, like the firefighters who are with our communities right now. For them, I want to thank the firefighters.

The reality is that it is ongoing and it is still happening today. Whether it is wildfires on the east coast or right across the Prairies, we are seeing the devastation of families like my own who have to go through this. I know that pain of not being able to get back what we once had, but I also know the joy of being able to return home with all of our lives, with the things we cherished most of all, which was each other.

When I went and journeyed just weeks ago to the East Prairie Métis Settlement, a community of which over 80% was reduced to ash, people greeted me with smiles. They greeted me with the kind of generosity and the kind of love that only a community that has withstood the worst could have. East Prairie Métis Settlement is a community of resilient, hard-working, remarkable individuals. When they received that call to evacuate early one morning in early May, they sprang into action. Just four hours is what it took for the entire community to evacuate, in a community that had only one entrance and one exit. That was because of the coordination of the community, not because of any extra help they got. It was because the community knew that this was not a matter of if; it was a matter of when.

The forests in northern Alberta have been sick. On top of that, people have had to suffer gruelling and dangerous temperatures. We used to have a saying, and I am sure many members are familiar with it: April showers bring May flowers. However, there have been no showers; this has resulted in one of the most devastating fires in the history of our province.

When I met with the council of the East Prairie Métis Settlement, its members pleaded with me. They said that in the heat of an Alberta election, they did not receive any support. They looked to the federal government, and they were stonewalled with jurisdiction. They sought support from local municipalities, but they had no resources left to offer.

This community had nothing left, but its members gave it their all. Although they lost over 14 homes, and 80% of the community burned, they saved 20%. That is an immense feat for a group of volunteers, a group of experts who hold within them the traditional knowledge necessary to continue to keep our communities safe.

They are called “wildland firefighters”, and it took only 14 of them to save the remainder of the community. This is the same group of firefighters we sent to Quebec, Ontario and right across the globe. Their skills, their understanding of forests and the traditional knowledge they carry are needed now more than ever.

I spoke to East Prairie survivors. I was there the day the evacuation order was lifted, and they took me into their community. What I witnessed was truly devastating.

I went with families, and it was an amazing moment for some of them. They saw their houses standing. They even saw their dogs, covered in ash but still protecting their land. They were holding their ground as if it were their last stand. They did it as they waited for their humans to come home. That is the kind of love that animals have a power to demonstrate and one that humans often hold back on. It is one I hope we never relent.

I spoke to some of those who lost their homes. A survivor, the oldest elder in the community, came up to me and said that once she got on that bus to go home, it felt like she was going back home as she did the day she left the residential school. She said the fear she had in her heart, and of not knowing what she was going back to, triggered her, and she wept. She found that although there was nothing left of her home, there was so much left of her community. She provided her strength, leadership and kindness to the children, mothers and those who were truly in pain. She offered them smiles, condolences and love, even though she had lost so much. I am truly inspired by that.

That is a story I wanted to share with all my colleagues, because people like this exist in their communities, too. They are worth protecting and investing in; we need to ensure that this climate catastrophe does not continue to wreck their lives.

I know they exist. They had only one ask. They said that as many families as returned home, there was the same number that could not return, because they did not have anywhere to go. They said that $900,000 is all it is going to take to ensure that all of those who lost their homes have temporary housing until they can rebuild.

We need courage, and we must demonstrate the kind of love we have for Canadians in our hearts. This must materialize as the programs and supports that people who are in need right now need the most. I beg this chamber and my colleagues to truly use the compassion they often speak so much about and turn it into action. The people of East Prairie, Paddle Prairie and Peavine deserve that. The people right across this country who are affected by the wildfires deserve that.

Those wildfires continue to rage every single day, and they are doing it right now, as we speak. I know it is late in the day for us, but those firefighters are going to be working even harder than we are tonight. They are going to be going all night, and they are going to be doing it with the risk of not returning home. I ask that we all keep them in our hearts and in our prayers tonight as they continue to battle raging wildfires across our country, in hopes that help truly comes from this place.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Madam Speaker, I too want to convey my thanks to members of the Canadian Armed Forces, who are deployed as part of Operation Lentus. I thank the firefighters as well, who are spanning out across the country to fight these wildfires.

One thing we heard during debate on my bill, Bill C-224, was the impact on firefighters after a wildfire. We heard about the fires in Fort Mac and the impact on firefighters, who are now seeing a high incidence of cancer from a lifetime of exposure in such a short amount of time.

People in Ottawa right now having trouble with respiratory problems because of the smog, which is basically across the country. These wildfires are putting people not just at immediate risk, but also at long-term risk. Therefore, could the member opposite elaborate a bit on the indirect effects we are starting to see?

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Madam Speaker, there is no question in my mind of the service put forward by firefighters and first responders in the service they conduct, at the height of the worst conditions and realities imaginable for everyday people. They put their lives at risk. They hold on to that fear, and they manifest courage. What is most important for us to know is that, when they put that courage on, they are also putting on equipment that is risking their lives and that has been found to contribute to cancer.

I am so thankful for the bill put forward by the member opposite, because this is something we are truly united around. We have all had firefighters come join us, and we have all promised them we would do something about what they are experiencing. That is exactly what we are going to do.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

I was reading in Le Devoir earlier that a “jewel of the Innu nation”, an outfitting camp owned by the Innu government of Uashat-Maliotenam near Sept-Îles on the north shore, was destroyed by fire.

I also read that 80% of indigenous communities in Canada live in forested areas and are among the first victims of this growing phenomenon. My colleague made the connection between climate change and global warming.

I would like him to talk more about what we must do. What is our responsibility as elected members to protect these communities?