Madam Speaker, Tip O'Neill, a couple of decades ago, said that “all politics is local”, and the debate we are having here in the chamber today certainly echoes that. The Bloc has brought forward a committee report that was done a year and a half ago regarding continued concerns about the Liberal government's inaction when it comes to shoreline erosion, in this case particularly along the St. Lawrence River. However, I know there are other bodies of water and issues when it comes to protecting our shorelines and the health of rivers in this country.
I am proud to stand up and give a perspective from Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, which borders an important part of the St. Lawrence River. For many years, our community has been struggling to get answers, funding and support to address a growing concern.
There are a few things I want to acknowledge as I begin. The local leadership has helped put this issue on the map and quantified the seriousness of the shoreline erosion happening in our part of the St. Lawrence River. There is the Great River Network, the River Institute and many other groups. I am also thinking of Chris Moran, a long-time family friend from Mariatown in the municipality of South Dundas. They have been on the front lines in trying to put the federal government's attention on the need to remediate and address this issue.
They have worked together over the course of the last few years to quantify this by studying points in Mariatown, just west of Morrisburg, and on Jacobs Island in Akwesasne. In partnership with different groups, like the River Institute, the municipalities have done some aerial imagery. They have also put instruments in the river itself to test the impact that shipping traffic is having in some of the more narrow channels of the St. Lawrence River. The conclusion is clear from the data they have presented. They have substantiated what we have known for many years, which is that there is a lack of leadership in acknowledging the issue.
I will point out the parallel between the St. Lawrence River and Highway 401. Over the course of the last 40, 50 or 60 years, since the 401 has been in existence in Ontario, which runs parallel to the St. Lawrence River, we have seen modernization. We have seen bridge rehabilitations and replacements. We have seen bridge structures change as they have been replaced to allow for what is happening next, which is the widening of the 401. The Province of Ontario will be adding in a third lane, including through my part of eastern Ontario. The St. Lawrence River is right beside the 401, and in that same time, our country has grown, our population has grown and our economy has grown. However, we have not seen modernization to address the increased number of ships passing through and the size and speed of those ships, which is now causing damage in many parts of the St. Lawrence River.
The part that is frustrating is that this report was done a year and a half ago, and the transport and infrastructure committee of the House of Commons confirmed what everyone along the St. Lawrence River has known for years, which is that shoreline erosion is a major issue, the government is not providing infrastructure funds and, most importantly, the federal level is not providing the leadership needed to address this issue. In a few different ways this is a problem, because there are many different federal departments.
The Liberals are the best at this. After we debate this report from a year and a half ago that says action is needed, there will be no action and no update. When Liberal members spoke about their updates and their perspective on this, they said they had given a lot of money to infrastructure over the years. They knew this debate was coming today and knew they were going to be called out and challenged for their lack of action, but they could not name one single infrastructure project they have funded in the last nine years that has helped address shoreline erosion, or anything specific they have done to address the issue. The only thing they do, which is typical of the Liberal government, is say they are having consultations and have a committee to talk about it.
The report was tabled after a committee talked about it and made recommendations. What is needed now is federal leadership. However, a year and a half later, another report has been done with no follow-through. In fact, the Liberals could not give any coherent, specific update on this issue, which tells us everything we need to know about how the federal government is truly broken.
The other issue we have is that the federal government needs to get its act together. It says that the provinces and municipalities are partners and players on this issue. However, the federal government has not even gotten itself organized.
Here is a point of reflection: What minister and department have the lead on the St. Lawrence River and the health of our rivers? I could not say. Transport Canada, one federal department and minister, has some say in some parts and jurisdictions of the river. We have Fisheries and Oceans Canada, another minister and department. We have Public Services and Procurement Canada. We have Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, another department and minister. We also have Global Affairs Canada and the foreign affairs minister involved.
Another big issue is the IJC, the International Joint Commission. It works to regulate water levels, which have been a major issue in our part of the St. Lawrence River, Lake St. Lawrence. If that was not enough, there was a suggestion a while ago, during this report, that the Canada Water Agency of the federal government should have some sort of lead.
Here we have six different ministers and departments and nobody is taking the lead. The federal government is saying it is having meetings with provinces and municipalities and it wants to study this further, but the government cannot even get its own house in order when it comes to which department, which part of the federal government, should take a singular, focused lead on the health and vitality of the St. Lawrence River, specifically addressing shoreline erosion. It has not figured that out after being in office for nine years.
The government brags about all the money it has spent “directly or indirectly”. That was a quote from this morning. It has spent billions of dollars, so directly or indirectly it has probably helped the St. Lawrence River. However, the government cannot even tangibly say how, after it doubled the national debt to $1.2 trillion. It has increased year-over-year spending, annual spending, by $151 billion. The Liberals spend $151 billion more per year now than when they came into office nine years ago. That is $10,000 more per year per Canadian family, and they cannot point to anything they have done about the issue of soil erosion and the leadership they say they are trying to provide when it comes to shoreline erosion.
My part of the St. Lawrence River is a good example. There is no leadership to even coordinate a coherent response. At the end of the day, which people are suffering when we have issues of shoreline erosion? It is private property owners, who are out hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the municipal infrastructure, beaches and waterfront enjoyed by the community. There is no leadership or coordination at all from the federal government year after year.
What we said as Conservatives when contributing to this report is that if the government is spending $150 billion more per year and our national debt has been doubled, surely there should be existing programs. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was used by the government when it came in, allocating over $1.3 billion to it. It has now suspended all that and no projects were done, but consultants and bureaucracies got rich and got ahead.
We are not seeing frontline results after years and years of neglect on this issue. At the end of the day, we need more leadership and need the federal government to step up, get coordinated and get some things done, not do another committee report and study.