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Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island—Powell River, NDP)

Nov/24/21 8:26:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, congratulations to you. It is good to see you in the chair. For the NDP, one of our biggest concerns is the fact that we see a Liberal government that says a lot of great things that people believe but it does not take the next step into action. When we look at what is happening in British Columbia, where we are seeing communities, indigenous communities, being completely isolated now because of this terrible weather incident, we know that it is just going to continue to grow because of climate change. Could the member speak a little about what we need to see in terms of action?

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Ms. Kristina Michaud

Nov/24/21 8:26:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. We asked different stakeholders that very question at COP26, a few days ago. A number of announcements were made during the conference, a number were made by Canada during the previous Parliament, and a number were made by the Liberal Party during the election campaign. They made announcements, they made commitments and they promised millions of dollars. Now we are wondering where the plan is or how it will be implemented. How are we going to achieve this? We want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we want net zero, but where and how do we start? We need to know. The industry also wants to know. Workers' unions want to know so that they can, we hope, help workers through the potential transition. We need a meaningful and transparent plan to help us be more resilient and launch that much-talked-about transition.

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Mr. Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay, NDP)

Nov/24/21 8:28:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Burnaby South. I would like to open by saying that my heart goes out to all British Columbians who have suffered hardships over the past days and weeks. Some have lost their loved ones in landslides. Others have lost homes, farms and their livelihoods. Some were stuck in vehicles for hours or days, waiting through the dark and the rain, fearing that at any time another landslide might come down and engulf them. I thank the first responders and volunteers who have helped those on the highways, the brave members of 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron who flew Cormorant helicopters in very dangerous conditions from Comox to pluck marooned motorists off Highway 7 between Agassiz and Hope, and the workers and volunteers who have struggled to save homeowners, rescue livestock, maintain and rebuild the dikes and pumps that were essential to keeping the losses to a minimum. I want to give a special shout-out to the gurdwaras, the Sikh temples around southern British Columbia, that got together and organized free food and aid to communities across the region. From November 14 to 15, an atmospheric river poured rain into the mountains of the B.C. coast. This is normally a wet time of year in coastal British Columbia, but 20 rainfall records were set that day and several sites received an entire month of rain in 24 hours. The rain fell on mountain snowpacks, on soil saturated by previous storms and, in some cases, soils and forests damaged by widespread fires the previous summer. Mudslides and debris flows roared down the steep mountain slopes to the roads and rail lines below and rivers swelled to overwhelm bridges and other infrastructure. In a short period of time, all the highways and rail lines connecting Vancouver to the rest of Canada were damaged or destroyed. The Coldwater River flooded the town of Merritt. The Tulameen River took out homes along its path and then met the Similkameen River to flood the Town of Princeton. Over 100 first nation communities were impacted throughout the region. The Nooksack River in northern Washington State overtopped its banks, its waters finding the low ground of Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford, flooding some of the best farmland in the country. A series of mudslides on Highway 99 west of Lillooet buried cars and trucks, killing at least four people, with a fifth still missing. Two landslides along Highway 7 between Hope and Agassiz trapped hundreds of motorists in the darkness. Some of the highways were simply buried in mud, rocks and trees, but the Coquihalla Highway, the major freeway connecting the coast to the interior of British Columbia, was simply destroyed in several places. The Nicola River, fed by the swollen Coldwater took out large sections of Highway 8. Both the CN and CP Rail lines through the Fraser Canyon were badly damaged. The Trans Mountain pipeline had to be shut down. All the critical supply chains between the south coast of British Columbia and the rest of the country were severed. Prairie grain shipments to the Port of Vancouver stopped. Three-quarters of our grain is exported through that port and almost all the goods imported into Canada from Asia come through Vancouver as well. That came to a shuddering halt. Perishable goods, including vegetables and milk, that are usually trucked to the interior of British Columbia on a daily basis disappeared quickly from store shelves throughout my riding and the rest of the region. This one-day rain event has laid bare many of the weaknesses in our supply chains and our transportation strategies. What does the future hold? In the immediate future, British Columbia is bracing for two more atmospheric rivers. One is beginning to hit the coast as we speak here tonight and another one is scheduled to arrive on Friday. These storms will likely not be quite as wet as last week's devastating storm, but with soil saturated and flood water still present, they could easily bring more landslides and raise the flood waters again. We have heard about the flooding that is happening right now in Atlantic Canada. What does the government need to do? We have heard so much about climate action, and rightly so. We have to rapidly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impact of climate change, but the global temperature increase we have seen to date is locked in. If we dropped our emissions to zero tomorrow, we would still be facing a future with increased flooding, catastrophic fires, heat domes and rising sea levels. The unfortunate truth is that we will continue emitting greenhouse gases for the next three decades at least, and these climate change impacts will only get worse. Therefore, we must also greatly increase our ambition in funding climate adaptation, getting ready for the changes that are locked in. Most climate adaptation funding from the federal government flows through the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund, which disburses a few hundred million dollars every year. It is chronically oversubscribed and therefore greatly underfunded. This disaster we are speaking of this evening will cost billions of dollars in rebuilding costs alone. The Abbotsford dikes may cost $1 billion just by themselves. It is almost, by definition, a fund to rebuild after disasters rather than prepare communities to avoid disasters. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Insurance Bureau of Canada have reported that the annual infrastructure costs of climate change in Canada right now are $5.7 billion every year. The Canadian Institute for Climate Choices estimates that the present annual cost of flooding impacts alone in Canada are about $1.3 billion, and that will rise by 10 times over the rest of this century. We need to have meaningful investments for adaptation and we need to provide adequate supports for individuals in communities that have been devastated. Federal and provincial governments have downloaded a lot onto municipal governments when it comes to infrastructure construction and maintenance. These local governments need real help to rebuild dikes, roads and other infrastructure, and they need a dedicated fund to help pay for forward-looking plans to strengthen infrastructure, so it is ready for the climate of 2050 and 2100. The Coquihalla Highway is only 35 years old and was basically destroyed in one rainfall event. We have heard of “build back better”, but when it comes to this infrastructure, we have to build back stronger with bigger culverts, higher bridges and better designed dikes. We need to look for nature-based solutions, planning for future flood events by allowing rivers to spill their banks in places where damage will be minimal, ensuring that mountain forests above communities and critical infrastructure are healthy enough to intercept rain and hold moisture in their soils. We have to redesign our buildings. Over 500 people died in last summer's heat dome in British Columbia. They were almost all low-income people living in apartments without air conditioning. We will have more heat domes, and we cannot see a repeat of this carnage. We need to act now to ensure low-income people across the country can live in housing with affordable and effective heating and cooling. We could provide those buildings with heat pumps that could effectively heat and cool the homes with clean electricity. We need to FireSmart neighbourhoods that are at the forest interface to reduce the chance they will be destroyed by catastrophic wildfires. The way forward will be difficult, and I know from experience that these climate disasters are absolutely devastating to the people who have lost their homes and livelihoods. In my riding, the city of Grand Forks flooded in 2018. The aftermath of that flood and the rebuilding process have been very painful for the community. The citizens of Lytton are experiencing the same pain and frustration, and I know the towns of Merritt and Princeton face a similar prospect. Therefore, we must plan for this uncertain future and ensure that communities have funds necessary not only to rebuild after natural disasters, but to adapt to climate change before being impacted by future weather events.

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Mr. Dan Albas (Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, CPC)

Nov/24/21 8:37:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my neighbouring member of Parliament and I, as British Columbians, stand together and appreciate the fact that we have an emergency debate to discuss these issues. At the tail-end of his speech, the member did talk about the experience of Grand Forks. I was wondering if the member could please give us a little more background on exactly what happened and also how the community is doing and what things we can use as lessons learned to apply to this situation.

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Mr. Richard Cannings

Nov/24/21 8:38:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola for allowing me to expand on that. Something we should be doing is learning from these disasters. They are very painful and the least we can do is learn lessons from them. In the case of Grand Forks, much of the downtown area and a low-lying neighbourhood on the other side of the Kettle River were flooded and the city and the surrounding regional district applied for funding. They received $20 million from the federal government and another $40 million or so from the provincial government to help rebuild the city. They decided to ensure this would not happen again. They redesigned the dikes along the river to flow so that if the river flooded, and the really low areas almost certainly would flood again, there would be no homes there. They had to buy out the people who lived there. It was very divisive and painful for the community. People had to give up their homes and often, because the funding was not as adequate as a lot of people thought it should be, they did not have enough money to buy another home in the city. It was very difficult for the city council and very difficult for the people involved. To ensure people do not have to go through that again, we have to look at designing our cities so neighbourhoods will not flood in the first place and use innovative ways to ensure we can make our communities safer in the future.

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Ms. Andréanne Larouche (Shefford, BQ)

Nov/24/21 8:40:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and I send my full support to people in the Abbotsford area. My stepson has embraced the Vancouver area and British Columbia. It is one of Canada's major agricultural areas, and I have been fortunate to visit. I come from an agricultural riding myself, so my thoughts are with the farmers who have lost so much in this disaster. My colleague spoke a lot about the importance of investing in infrastructure to prepare for the inevitable climate storms that are sure to come. Does he think the best way to prevent this from happening is to invest directly in combatting climate change? I am talking about investing money into infrastructure, which Quebec and the provinces have been calling for. They are in the best position to know what to do and how to respond to a climate disaster. Is the best option not, as I mentioned, to invest money directly into climate change and to get us started on a transition?

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Mr. Richard Cannings

Nov/24/21 8:41:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think the question was should we spend federal monies directly or should we flow them through the province. In fact, the way it is done now is that they go through the province. The money I just talked about in rebuilding Grand Forks was a partnership between the federal government and the province, but the money went to the province and the province then co-operated with the city as to how to spend that. That is how a lot of infrastructure funding in Canada works. The money from the federal government goes to the province and the province decides how to spend that.

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Mr. Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South, NDP)

Nov/24/21 8:42:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank everybody for being here for this emergency debate. I want to thank the member who spoke previously, a colleague of mine from the New Democrats who brought this motion forward, as well as others who brought it forward. What is happening right now in British Columbia has laid bare the reality that the climate crisis is not a problem for the future. It is another example of how the climate crisis is a reality we face today. I am certain we have seen enough examples that we no longer believe this is just a question of making sure our children inherit a future and an environment that is safe. We have seen extreme weather and the forest fires in B.C. We have seen hotter and drier summers across the country, which have left many communities ravaged by forest fires. Now the floods in B.C. are devastating communities. We have heard some of the examples of what is going on. We are seeing communities that are entirely washed out. There are parts of the Lower Mainland that were completely disconnected from other communities. We are seeing infrastructure completely destroyed. Homes have been destroyed. People are being displaced. Farms have been destroyed. This is the devastation of the climate crisis. Sadly, the reality is that this is not an exception. This is becoming the norm. Right now our thoughts are with the communities that are impacted, and we are pushing for as much help as possible to be delivered; communities are working to get back to a place where they can continue to be connected and they can get the roads fixed. However, we need to start looking at what we can do if this is going to be normal, if this is going to be what we expect. As my colleague said, even if we tackle the climate crisis and we limit and reduce our emissions, there is some climate change that has already been baked in. We are going to see a rise in temperature. We are already seeing it, and that means extreme weather will become more common. What do we do about it? First, let us look at the impacts. Actually, it is not just in B.C. Right now we are talking about the incredibly horrible impacts in B.C., but as we speak there are extreme weather patterns happening in Newfoundland and Labrador. The community of Channel-Port aux Basques in Newfoundland is completely cut off as well. The roads have been washed out. Trans-Canada highways have been washed out in Newfoundland. In Nova Scotia, Cape Breton has just right now, in the past couple of hours, been hit with an incredible weather pattern. They are saying it will take days or weeks for their communities to return to normal. The entire country, the entire world is being gripped with extreme weather, which means more rainstorms and flooding, and drier and hotter summers. What we need to do is acknowledge that we have to take on this climate crisis with the urgency it demands. We have not seen that urgency on the part of the Liberal government. The urgency of the need to respond to dire climate crisis means we need to start acting immediately. We need dramatic and bold steps to reduce our emissions. We need to invest in renewable energy. We need to invest in these communities. My colleague laid this out, but I want to be very clear on this. We need three things to be enhanced. First is our emergency preparedness. We need the federal government to play a stronger role in this. We need to respond more quickly to these extreme weather circumstances and these disasters. We need disaster mitigation. We need to make investments ahead of time so that we are not just responding to a crisis but instead investing in communities to make sure they are more resilient and built in a way that they can withstand what is becoming more and more common. If extreme weather is more common, if extreme rainfall and flooding are going to be more common, then we need to build the infrastructure so these communities are more resilient. We know there is aging infrastructure, and that aging infrastructure is being directly impacted by the extreme weather. I was just in Nunavut, and Nunavut has a water crisis. Right now, the early indications are, again, that it is a direct result of the climate crisis. Warming temperatures and permafrost that is no longer frozen, that is warming, have resulted in shifts in the water supply infrastructure, which has created a contamination of hydrocarbon in Nunavut. The water is poisoned in the largest community in Nunavut. Again, this is a direct result of the climate crisis. We are being impacted across the country. We are being impacted across the world. We need to start acting. One of our biggest pushes is that we need to see the federal government take a more active role, making those investments to build more resilient communities. B.C. needs help. We need to be there in solidarity, and I appreciate some of the comments in the chamber expressing solidarity with the people of B.C. That is greatly appreciated. We need to take care of our fellow Canadians and we need to make sure we are doing everything possible to prevent this from happening in the future. I want to take a moment to talk about some of the incredible stories of support and solidarity. My colleague mentioned some folks in the Sikh community who stepped up and provided food and relief. We see, as Canadians, in difficult times, incredible stories of courage and incredible stories of support from folks who helped out those in need. I want to acknowledge everyone who provided those supports. I want to acknowledge neighbours who looked out for their vulnerable community members, for vulnerable seniors. I want to acknowledge and thank people in the community who provided food and shelter to those in need. I want to acknowledge the frontline workers, the workers who provided supports to those who needed to be evacuated and the workers who provided supports to those who needed health care supports. I also want to acknowledge all the communities that are right now housing evacuees from communities that cannot go back to their homes. There are countless people across the province who have been evacuated and are being housed in neighbouring communities; the generosity, open arms and warmth of those communities has to be acknowledged. I want to thank everyone across the country and everyone across the province who has provided that support and provided that help. Our response to this crisis is important, so I am going to encourage the Liberal government to do everything possible to provide the support to rebuild the highways, the bridges and the infrastructure that have been damaged. Again, I want to make a strong push. What we have seen from the government when it comes to the climate has often been a lot of pretty words, and I hope this horrible disaster makes clear the price of nice words and the cost of inaction. It is not good enough to talk about the climate crisis. It is not good enough to say one cares. It is not good enough to stand up in the House and say one had the best plan in the last election. Put it into action. Let us see some concrete action. Canadians are demanding it. People across this country are demanding action. They are witnessing the impact of a climate crisis in their lives right now, and they are saying, “Do something about it.” Canadians are fed up. They are frustrated. They do not want to see more empty promises; they want to see concrete actions. We want to see the investments and a real plan so that we can tackle the climate crisis. We want to see an opportunity to use this recovery as we move forward past the pandemic, as an opportunity to create jobs in communities that need this infrastructure to be rebuilt, to create local jobs, to improve the infrastructure and to build jobs of today and of tomorrow. While we are up against a horrible disaster, and in times of disaster we are focused on the tremendous loss, there is an opportunity here for us to do something that will build a brighter future. There is an opportunity for us to make investments in clean energy and in better infrastructure. There is an opportunity for us to take this horrible time and this disaster as motivation to do the right thing, to fight for the today and the tomorrow for our children, and to take every step possible to ensure that we protect our communities, our people and our future.

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Mr. Ken Hardie (Fleetwood—Port Kells, Lib.)

Nov/24/21 8:51:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is good to see you in the chair. I guess there will be no more fisheries committee for you. We have heard an impassioned plea from the hon. member for government to step in and do things, and government can indeed do that. One of the things we have to be mindful of is the continuity of effort. This reminds us that governments are there at the pleasure of the people. If the people decide a government is not doing the right thing or if they disagree with it, they change governments, and anything that had been done to that point might be thrown away. What is the hon. member's assessment of the working through process that Canadians are doing? Of course we need to adapt, and nobody will disagree, but are we also ready to do those things that in the future will not keep us adapting? Are we ready to actually address the root causes of the things that are causing the difficulties we are facing right now? Where does he see the public, Canadians, on that issue?

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Mr. Jagmeet Singh

Nov/24/21 8:53:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what we need now is a two-pronged approach. We need to immediately invest in the infrastructure needed to make sure communities are resilient. We also need to make sure we are doing everything possible to fight the climate crisis. We know that this is also a global problem, but if we do not do our part in Canada, if we do not end fossil fuel subsidies, if we do not invest in renewable energy and if we do not have a plan for workers, we are not in a position to then encourage countries around the world to provide support and leadership for other countries around the world to do their part. What we need to do right now is immediately invest in resilient community infrastructure that can help these communities deal with the extreme weather that is becoming more common more often. We also need to make sure we are investing in every solution possible to fight this climate crisis.

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Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Nov/24/21 8:53:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, may I add my congratulations on seeing you in the chair as the Deputy Speaker. I would say this to my hon. colleague from Burnaby South. If we are prepared to do everything possible, and this is a politically difficult question for my hon. friend, that would require the federal NDP leader to be prepared to disappoint the Alberta NDP leader by cancelling the Trans Mountain pipeline, and the provincial premier, Mr. Horgan, by cancelling LNG pipelines and subsidies and banning fracking. Is the hon. member prepared to commit to doing that?

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Mr. Jagmeet Singh

Nov/24/21 8:54:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we need to do everything possible while we are in this chamber to do our part as a country. We know there are billions of dollars of federal subsidies right now that continue to flow to the oil and gas sector. That is money that should go toward renewable energy. That is money that should go toward creating a plan for workers. That is money that should go toward fighting the climate crisis. We are going to do everything we can in this House and this chamber to ensure we are using all of our resources toward solving the problem, building a brighter future and protecting communities right now.

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Mr. Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River—Parkland, CPC)

Nov/24/21 8:55:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of debate and discussion tonight, and it has overwhelmingly been dominated by the theme of climate change. I agree that climate change was a significant factor at play in this disaster, but we have seen evidence and proof brought before us that this was in many ways also a man-made disaster, because of negligence and lack of investment. The most shocking thing I heard is that the Sumas Prairie dike system was created 100 years ago. When did we as a country stop building the critical infrastructure needed to go forward as an economy with safe communities? When are we going to bring back that sense of building this nation again, so we can get this country moving?

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Mr. Jagmeet Singh

Nov/24/21 8:56:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, without a doubt this is a human-made problem. The climate crisis was created by human activity. It is going to take people coming together and the government investing in solutions to improve the infrastructure. Absolutely, we need to build more resilient communities. That is something we need to be aware of, and the federal government has to play a role in building those more resilient communities. The climate crisis has been caused by us and we have to do our part to stop it.

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Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)

Nov/24/21 8:56:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your role in the Speaker's chair. I will be sharing my time this evening with my neighbour and friend, the member for Surrey Centre. This is my first speech in the House of Commons since 2019, and it is good to be back. I am proud to say that I am visiting the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe nation from the traditional and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Katzie, Kwantlen, Matsqui and Semiahmoo first nations. I would like to begin by thanking the voters of Cloverdale—Langley City for returning me to Parliament. I must thank all the volunteers who helped me over many months. I would not be sitting here if it were not for them. I would also like to thank my wife, Elaine, and children Kai, Hattie and Kalani for always supporting me. I am pleased that you, Mr. Speaker, granted this emergency debate. I am thankful to so many of the B.C. members of Parliament for being here and being part of this important discussion, but also to colleagues from around the country. I want to also offer my support to the members who are most affected by this recent tragedy in British Columbia. In the areas of Abbotsford, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon and Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, I know it has been particularly devastating to communities. Anything I can do from this side of the aisle, I am here to offer that support to them. The devastating flooding in B.C. last week was heartbreaking to watch and continues to weigh on my mind as this Parliament begins. This is especially true for the four individuals who lost their lives, two of whom were parents of a toddler they were on their way home to see, and for those who are still missing. Considering how to avoid loss of life in the future should be the first priority as we rebuild. Henry Braun, mayor of Abbotsford, one of the worst-hit areas, estimated that the damage caused to his city will cost at least $1 billion. This is the cost to just one city in this region. The most recent estimate for the total damage in B.C. is over $8 billion. The economic impact to our infrastructure and to farmers, including half of B.C.'s dairy farmers, as well as to businesses and to personal property is distressing. The scale alone should be cause for concern regarding our economic future. We need systems to mitigate economic disruptions during extreme weather. The loss of animal life must be considered as well. Thousands of animals, including tens of thousands of poultry, drowned from the flooding or died from being stuck in transports with no access to farms or feed. For farmers this is costly and for our domestic food security it is disruptive, but it is also a sad state of animal welfare. Farmers and farm animals need emergency procedures for protecting animal welfare during these events. The losses to our critical infrastructure, particularly bridges and segments of railroad, are causing shortages in key household goods. Gasoline is being rationed. Some of the infrastructure will take months if not years to repair, posing challenges for our communities, provinces and country. Many of these routes move goods between Canada's biggest port, the Port of Vancouver, and the rest of the country. For our food security and supply chains, how to withstand another event such as this needs to be central to the reconstruction of this infrastructure. I must acknowledge how my constituency managed during the flooding. While Cloverdale—Langley City is close to Abbotsford and many of the hardest-hit areas, it avoided the devastating flooding this time. However, residents faced property damage that, as we emerge from COVID-19, is another economic hurdle to overcome. Fortunately our government is already investing in climate adaptation. In 2019, our government invested over $76 million in Surrey, Delta and the Semiahmoo First Nation to implement a comprehensive flood adaptation strategy to increase resilience for over 125,000 residents in our region. Some parts of my riding are playing an important role in food security, including Heppell Farms. Working sandy loam soil, their crops withstood the rains and will be able to provide for the greater region as we experience losses in B.C.'s interior. The effects of the flooding go far beyond the Lower Mainland, though. Much of B.C.'s coast was impacted by flooding last week and is again, as I speak, experiencing further downpours of rain. With the next three storm events in the coming week expected to also be atmospheric rivers, we do not know what the next round of rainstorms could bring. Communities in the interior, including Merritt and Princeton, were also negatively affected. Extreme weather events are not restricted to B.C., either. Atlantic Canada is simultaneously being subjected to unprecedented rainfall and the Prairies have suffered terrible droughts this year. Recovering from these events will take commitments from all levels of government. Inaction will continue to cost society. Insurance claims will drive up insurance costs, and in some areas, insurance is not available if property is on a flood plain. This puts pressure on governments to help homeowners rebuild following these types of catastrophic weather events. No human life should ever be lost. Farm animals need to be protected, as does personal property. With loss of life, economic impacts, animal welfare and supply chains in mind, the catastrophic flooding last week is the most recent, and perhaps the most significant, illustration of how necessary climate adaptation, mitigation and resiliency are to Canada. Our country is warming at twice the rate of the global average. In the Arctic, it is three times the rate. Preventing warming past 1.5°C will mean for us 3°C and in the Arctic 4.5°C. These effects are why our government is ready to move faster on climate initiatives than we have before. We demonstrated that this year with our ambitious targets of a 40% to 50% reduction in our emissions, and at COP26 by committing to end thermal coal exports by 2030, to cap and reduce the oil sector's emissions to net zero by 2050, and to cut our methane emissions by 30% no later than 2030. Without these actions, the $8 billion cost of a single extreme weather event will be more frequent and more costly. Eight billion dollars is about 3% of my province's economy. It is simply not sustainable to be unprepared for extreme weather and climate change. Our government is addressing this directly by including Canada's first-ever national adaptation strategy in the Speech from the Throne. Reconstruction of infrastructure will need to include funding to ensure that future infrastructure can withstand extreme weather events such as the one we recently experienced in British Columbia, and likely stronger ones. Our national strategy will need to include processes for protecting businesses and farms, including their animals. It will need to support stronger implementation of warning systems to avoid loss of life. Also, we do not fully understand the devastating impacts that this and similar weather events will have on things like the wild Pacific salmon population. The floods last week were devastating, and indeed catastrophic. There is no other way to describe them, but they serve as a terrible reminder of the urgency and fortitude with which our government and every MP here must act to implement strong climate action and avoid such events in the future. Our government has committed to assisting British Columbians with recovering and preparing for future extreme weather events, but the work is not yet done. Let us work together to ensure all Canadians are protected from future weather events like the one we are seeing right now in British Columbia.

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Hon. Ed Fast (Abbotsford, CPC)

Nov/24/21 9:04:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague from British Columbia on his fine speech. I want to address the issue of the cost: Billions of dollars of infrastructure will be required to address the very real flooding dangers in the area where we both live and represent our constituents. Billions of dollars' worth of diking upgrades and new dikes will have to be built. I would ask the member to take this question directly to the Minister of Emergency Preparedness, to the finance minister, to the infrastructure minister and to the Prime Minister himself: Are they prepared to commit, in the next budget, to include a very significant envelope to address specifically the issue of dike protection, not only in British Columbia but across the country, yes or no?

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Mr. John Aldag

Nov/24/21 9:05:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, absolutely. The member and I were able to sit together on the way out here and talk about the devastating effects, and I think that our government needs to invest. We have seen the impacts, and with $8 billion for one event, the magnitude could be so much greater as we experience this across the country in other regions and perhaps again in British Columbia. We are in a low-lying area against the Fraser River through the Fraser Valley, and things such as dike protection and dike reinforcement are absolutely critical. I will be discussing with members of our government that it is absolutely critical to get ahead of this. The investment dollars will save us that much more down the road.

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Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

Nov/24/21 9:06:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your new role as Chair. I would like to again thank the constituents of Nanaimo—Ladysmith for putting their trust in me as their newly elected member of Parliament. The devastating flooding in B.C. has been a painful reminder that we are living with the consequences of the human-caused climate crisis. Indigenous communities across Canada continue to be at the forefront of the climate crisis. Shamefully, first nations feel the impacts all too frequently being at the back of the line for federal funding for cleanups and infrastructure. Chief Roxanne Harris and the Stz'uminus First Nation in my riding have felt these impacts from the flooding first-hand, and the delays in funding have only made matters worse. Is my colleague ready to listen to indigenous leaders such as Chief Harris, and to work alongside indigenous communities to get them the urgent support they need to combat the worsening climate crisis?

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Mr. John Aldag

Nov/24/21 9:07:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague from British Columbia for that question. We absolutely need to work with all populations and all communities. Indigenous communities often have so many disadvantages, so it is important that we are there for them. In the latest flooding event, there was money immediately made available to a number of first nations that were affected, to help get supplies and other goods into the communities and provide any assistance that was needed. We can never forget that these populations are often at risk and in need of support, and I think we all need to work together to make sure that our indigenous communities are supported through these types of events.

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Mr. Arif Virani (Parkdale—High Park, Lib.)

Nov/24/21 9:08:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is my first time rising in the House in this term. I want to thank the constituents of Parkdale—High Park for returning me for a third time to this august chamber. I want to welcome back the member for Cloverdale—Langley City. Why am I participating in this debate about B.C. environmental events? It is because there is a pattern that we are seeing with these mudslides and fires. What we are seeing is something that my constituents are very concerned about, which is the impact of climate change. I know the member is a learned man who has spent a lot of time working in parks and in conservation. What has this taught him about the urgency of climate change and about where the priority must be in terms of investments by our government?

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