SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 102 - Sep/26/22

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

Sep/26/22 10:21:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I did not miss church on Sunday, but I am still glad I heard that. If we think about the kinds of investments we will need for the storms of the future, my friend from South Okanagan—West Kootenay pointed out where we are headed. We are at 1.2°C global average temperature increase right now, versus what it was before the beginning of the industrial revolution. With every fraction of a degree of warming, we face worse storms. We are really looking at trying to save lives because, at every fraction of a degree, millions more people are going to be at risk. There is going to be a level of climate change that we can adapt to, but we are getting really close to a level of climate change to which we cannot adapt anymore. Does my hon. colleague think we can step back and have a hard look at this? What can we adapt to? What kinds of wharves, bridges and infrastructure can withstand what we can see coming at 1.2°C and 1.4°C, but not 1.5°C and certainly not 2°C? How do we hang on to a livable climate, the one God made for us?

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Mr. Richard Bragdon

Sep/26/22 10:23:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and friend from across the way for her comments, and I appreciate her thoughts. I would like to assure my hon. colleague that I think all of us in this House want to be responsible and good stewards of the land, the earth and the planet that we have been entrusted with. I also believe there will be two different ways in which we approach this. Right now, what we are seeing from the current federal government is that it feels it can tackle climate change through taxation. We understand, on this side of the House, that taxation will do absolutely nothing to tackle climate change. Rather, technology and investment in technology and investing in good, clean Canadian energy is the way forward. I believe Canada has some of the best alternatives, but also some of the best and cleanest energy in the world. It will help the rest of the world get off much dirtier sources of energy. That would help the planet and help us all become better stewards of the planet we have been entrusted with.

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Ms. Lena Metlege Diab (Halifax West, Lib.)

Sep/26/22 10:24:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me start off by saying I will be sharing my time with the member for Charlottetown. Let me begin by acknowledging how difficult the past few days have been for the people of Halifax West, for Nova Scotians, for Atlantic Canadians and for eastern Quebec. My thanks go out to all my colleagues for sharing their messages of support this last weekend and this evening. I wish we did not have to stand here to have this debate this evening. However here we are. What we know as of now is that two families in my region are mourning today. On Prince Edward Island, Fiona claimed the life of one Islander. In Newfoundland, we learned of the tragedy in Port aux Basques that claimed a 73-year-old woman's life. In my home province, we are worried for 81-year-old Larry Smith of Lower Prospect, who has not been seen since Friday evening and it appears he may have been swept out to sea. My heart breaks for these families. It is hard to find a comforting word in this moment, but I want them to know they are in my prayers, and I did attend mass yesterday. Before I share my own experiences with the storm, many thanks are in order. First, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our Prime Minister and the ministers of Emergency Preparedness and National Defence. We had a number of calls throughout the whole weekend. They have reassured us, and we were in turn able to reassure our constituents. Our federal government and armed forces were prepared in advance and acted quickly. For that, I wish to say on behalf of my own community that we are deeply grateful. In Nova Scotia at the moment, crews from across the country and New England, and even Hydro Ottawa's team, are helping to get us reconnected and get debris and trees off our streets. I am told there are more than 1,000 people in the field working on our recovery effort, and I am grateful to each and every one of them. In Halifax West, I surveyed a great deal of the damage over the weekend and today before I took a flight this evening and came here. What I can tell my colleagues is that most, if not all, side streets in my area have multiple trees down and sidewalks ripped up. Countless streets were impassable, with trees blocking the way. In many instances, residents took it upon themselves to help in the cleanup. One in particular I want to mention today, because I saw it on Facebook but I also know the people, was a whole crew of families who live on Kelvin Grove who came with saws, axes, shears and chainsaws in hand, making short work of the downed trees blocking their street together. They all came out to help a young woman who lives in a house where trees were blocking her driveway and access right beside her car. What I am thankful for is that Nova Scotians largely heeded the call to stay home, allowing our paramedics, first responders and power crews to continue doing their jobs without additional impediments or delays. If anyone has seen any photos of the grocery store shelves in my riding, it is not hard to imagine that most people were home with their families and their storm chips. As I walked through my community, checking in with folks who needed checking in on, and probably some who did not, asking them what they needed in the moment, I was relieved to hear that most were okay, even though most had no power. However, not everyone was able to withstand the storm so easily. This was a serious storm. On Sunday morning I stopped by the Canada Games Centre, which was turned into an evacuation centre for folks who had lost their homes in the storm. What was previously a busy recreation centre is now being run by the Salvation Army and Red Cross to shelter dozens of people from two apartment buildings that had sustained extensive damage. One building had its roof torn off, and on another building the chimney fell off and punched a hole right through every floor of the building. Miraculously, thankfully, no one was hurt, but all of these people are now looking for housing. At the Canada Games Centre, I met members of the Disaster Animal Response Team of Nova Scotia. They told me they are the first and only one in the country that does animal response. They were sheltering 13 pets that had been displaced in the storm by people who were evacuated and had no homes. Later on, I visited the LeBrun Recreation Centre in Bedford, where volunteers from Halifax's joint emergency management team were providing tea, coffee, snacks and a place to charge phones to anyone who did not have power. Volunteers Dave Aalders, Karen Saulnier and Amani Saleh were incredibly welcoming to anyone who needed help. In fact, I remembered meeting Karen back in 2018 when she was taking the first steps to set up a JEM team for mainland south. I am thankful to all those who in normal times, when events like these are generally far from our minds, take the time and put in the work to prepare for the “what ifs”, although especially with climate change, these are more like “when ifs”. While I was there, I called into CBC to talk about the resources available in our community. Within five minutes, a woman walked in and said to me, “Oh, you're Lena.” I said yes and she said, “I just heard you on CBC Radio and learned that there is a comfort centre here. I just came in to get some Wi-Fi, because we have no power.” It all works. This shows me the value of all of us, public personalities and community leaders, doing what we can to amplify existing resources in our networks. On the other side of my riding, the Fairview Resource Centre team was doing much the same work. I stopped by to thank Hayley Nelson this morning, a volunteer with the provincial EMO, and the centre's staff and volunteers for providing a safe place for those who did not have power. I saw Nova Scotians of all ages and many across Atlantic Canada all mobilizing to help their neighbours. From the Haliburton Hills subdivision to Lucasville to Bedford to Fairview and everywhere in between, people were asking themselves what they could do to be of assistance. That is very much what we do in our part of the country, which we have heard quite a bit tonight. Facebook groups are full of neighbours reaching out to help those who do not have power. People are offering their help, their showers, their freezer space, their generators and cups of tea. In one truly inspiring example, Square Roots, a group that delivers produce packs to residents in need every week, made sure that a hurricane did not get in the way of their deliveries. As soon as they were able to get volunteers, they did it. I give a special thanks to Mount Saint Vincent University and its president in my riding for making sure that students on campus were safe, warm, fed and well cared for. The storm was terrible. Many people in our communities experienced and are still experiencing pain and hardship, but when people needed support, families, friends and neighbours were there to help. I was able to assure them, after a phone call with the Prime Minister, my cabinet colleagues and MPs, that the government is there to help. I am proud to say that support from the military is on the ground, with significant financial support as well. There is an appeal to match Red Cross donations, which is also being offered. I especially want to say that my heart and mind are with Cape Breton, P.E.I. and Newfoundland. Anybody who is able to donate, please do so. Again, we look forward to all the work we have to continue to do, and I want to thank everybody who is working hard in our communities to bring them back to safety and normality. Please stay safe, everyone.

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Ms. Laurel Collins (Victoria, NDP)

Sep/26/22 10:33:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her words about community members coming together to help one another and neighbours helping neighbours. That is really the spirit of Atlantic Canada. It reminded me of when I was in Halifax during hurricane Juan. My neighbours had a tree go through their house, and we went over to help them. Our other neighbours came over with a barbeque so we could use the rest of the food that was in our freezer, which had thawed. This is so critical, and I am so glad that members of very party in the House are committed to giving support immediately. As mentioned a number of times, we also need to look forward. It has been shown again and again that investing upfront in resilience costs way less than having to clean up in the aftermath of natural disasters. Can the member speak about the importance of proactively investing in climate resilience to ensure that communities are prepared for natural disasters in the future?

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Ms. Lena Metlege Diab

Sep/26/22 10:35:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Victoria very much. I really love her part of our country. It has lots of similarities, I find, to Halifax. First, I am going to thank her for acknowledging us. I feel that as Atlantic Canadians, we are a special part of the country, and we really, truly deeply care for each other. We are welcoming and generally generous and good people. Second, to her question, the Prime Minister has made a clear commitment to Atlantic Canada and to continuing to ensure that the government is there to do whatever is needed right now on the ground to assist not only in the short term but in the longer term, because these hurricanes are going to happen. They are going to happen more frequently and they are going to be more severe. I have witnessed a number of them so far that have hit our province over the last two decades, and they are getting worse, more frequent and, quite frankly, more scary. Even as I stand here now, none of my children, in their respective homes in Halifax, have power. I just saw a picture right now of one of my children, who has three little ones, with candles all over the place. They are all sitting and having fun. It is wonderful for me to see that, and it is nice to say that our government is there to assist and collaborate with the province and with the municipalities, which are really working hard on the ground to get everybody back to where they were.

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Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport, Lib.)

Sep/26/22 10:37:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for flying in today and for sticking around at the community level to ensure that everybody had what they needed before she came to the House of Commons. I was fortunate enough this summer to visit my friend and colleague in Halifax and visit throughout the riding. I got to see first-hand her commitment and dedication to the constituents in her riding. That was evident today with her speech as well. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of Miltonians feel a tremendous amount of sympathy. My neighbours want to know what they can do. How can my neighbours in Milton and throughout Ontario help remediate this disaster?

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Ms. Lena Metlege Diab

Sep/26/22 10:38:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I really want to thank the parliamentary secretary for health and sport. Yes, he was in Halifax West this summer and he did visit the Canada Games Centre, which now, unfortunately, is the home of the shelter. People can donate to the Canadian Red Cross. I say that truly, honestly and without a doubt. If anybody wants to help across the country or internationally, right now I would say the best thing for citizens to do is donate through the Canadian Red Cross.

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Mr. Sean Casey (Charlottetown, Lib.)

Sep/26/22 10:38:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by acknowledging that I am speaking from the traditional territory of the Mi'kmaq people, Abegweit. They are the past, present and future caretakers of these lands, and we honour them. I am in downtown Charlottetown, one of the only places in the riding of Charlottetown that has power. I would try to speak from my home office, but the generator would probably drown me out. I want to, first of all, thank the member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay for bringing forward the motion for this emergency debate tonight. It is timely, and I do think it is important for Canadians to hear from parliamentarians about the impact of this storm and the government's response to it. The storm was not a surprise. All of the forecasts and warnings that came in advance turned out to be remarkably accurate. Prince Edward Islanders are quite accustomed to storms, more commonly winter storms, and all of the preparations were made. Generators were in place. The fuel for the generators had been purchased. There was a run on the grocery stores for storm chips and any other number of groceries. The shelves were quite bare in advance of the storm, without a doubt. Arrangements were made for emergency shelters. The level of preparation and information, all of these things, were accurate and well done. What we did not anticipate, I would say, in Prince Edward Island and certainly in the Charlottetown riding, was that this would be pretty much exclusively a wind event. Rain was not a factor. Water has been a factor in coastal communities, and I say that not based on personal observation because the only personal observation I have been able to make is in my riding, but from relying on information received from other people. I say that because one of the major challenges in the last three days, since the storm hit, has been connectivity. Internet and cell service is spotty at best, which really affects absolutely everything. If one does not have information, it is difficult to know how to access the supports that are available. We have heard from many other speakers this evening on the impacts of the storm in their communities, so much of what I am about to say will sound quite familiar. Because of the tremendous winds, the city of Charlottetown and much of Prince Edward Island are littered with fallen trees. These trees have fallen on power lines, which knocked out power to virtually the entire riding and the entire island. Bit by bit it is being restored, but not so much in Charlottetown, other than downtown, as of yet. Those trees have damaged roofs. In some cases, the winds have actually decimated roofs not that far from my home. Pieces of the roof of Queen Charlotte Intermediate School have flown for city blocks, and it is a very significant question as to when those junior high school students are going to be back in the classroom. We have seen some substantial erosion, including a decimation of the dunes at Cavendish Beach. A famous and popular rock formation in Darnley is gone. Cars have been damaged, including one in my driveway. Wharves have sustained substantial damage in coastal communities, and there have been impacts in the agricultural sector, particularly with corn, and the storage facilities for potatoes and dairy. All of these sectors have been particularly hard hit. As the storm has gone on, it has proven difficult to be able to recharge generators with propane or gas. Because of the lack of power, these things are not available. In my search for propane yesterday, I was absolutely heartened when the Confederation Bridge opened, and I know it is a bad word, but a convoy of electrical trucks came from out of province. I met them on the bypass. I was never so happy to see a convoy of people coming to do good. This is also the case today with the arrival of the Canadian military. Two days ago, the Government of Prince Edward Island asked for federal help. One day ago, they got a yes, and today, the army arrived. That will be a major help in cleaning up the roads and getting the trees off of the power lines. I want to talk for a minute about the mindset of the people in this city and this province. The picture of devastation that I just presented might lead people to believe there is despair here. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a lot of shock and awe about the magnitude of the winds and about the magnitude of the devastation. We knew it was coming, but many people have never seen what we see in our streets even now. The mindset is one very much of determination and of resolve. The mindset is that we are going to roll up our sleeves. We have trust and faith in one another, and I have to say that we have trust and faith in Maritime Electric. Time and time again when we have been battered by winter storms, we receive on Prince Edward Island timely and reliable information from Maritime Electric with regard to the progress that is being made by the hard-working crews at Maritime Electric and the status of their work. That has already begun. Kim Griffin, the spokesperson for Maritime Electric, has become a well-known face to Prince Edward Islanders for the updates in these critical situations. That is the case now. When we have gone around Charlottetown over the last couple of days, the sound of generators and chainsaws is predominant essentially everywhere. I have been heartened by the involvement of the cabinet. The Minister of Emergency Preparedness and the Prime Minister have listened to us. They have been in contact with us. It is evident that they care. It is evident that the information they are receiving from us is factored into the actions that they are taking. It is also important to focus on the other measures that have been taken by the government, specifically the decision to match donations made to the Red Cross. I want to offer a big thanks to the workers at the Jack Blanchard Family Centre, the Malcolm J. Darrach Community Centre, the Community Outreach Centre, the Confederation Centre of the Arts and the Hillsborough Park Community Centre for the work they are doing in helping those who need emergency shelter. I want to finish with a final word of advice to the people in the insurance industry. During my time practising law, I was on both sides of the insurance industry. To the case managers and adjusters within the insurance industry, I would ask them in the coming days to please act with urgency and act with compassion and to put their policyholders ahead of their shareholders.

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Mr. Stephen Ellis (Cumberland—Colchester, CPC)

Sep/26/22 10:49:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to serve with the member for Charlottetown on the Standing Committee on Health, and I appreciate his actions there. One of the things that certainly holds true, as we have heard from most of the Atlantic provinces today, and it is always interesting to hear, is how similar we are and how the great resilience of the people from Atlantic Canada certainly stands out in all of our minds. As I said previously, hopefully it is not just us patting ourselves on the back. That being said, I think it is important to underscore, and I think we are all at the point that we need to realize, that cellphone service is part of critical infrastructure. We also know, and we have heard in this House previously, that former minister Ralph Goodale promised during Dorian that the CRTC would fix this. We know that has not happened. I wonder how the member opposite is going to prod his government to ensure that this piece of critical infrastructure is better suited to serving the needs of all of our constituents.

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Mr. Sean Casey

Sep/26/22 10:50:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Cumberland—Colchester for affording another opportunity to drive home the message on this, that cellphones and connectivity in this day and age absolutely are essential and that it is important for government to create the environment that brings in the investment from the telcos to make that happen. There has been substantial progress made, but a catastrophic event such as this indicates there is still more to do. That message is absolutely evident. I know the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry is acutely aware and has spoken to it in the past. I am absolutely certain there will be more conversations on this topic in the near future, as well as investments. There must be.

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

Sep/26/22 10:51:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Charlottetown for sharing the experiences he has had on the ground there. I visited Charlottetown in June, and my heart goes out to the people there who are facing all these difficulties. He mentioned that we knew this storm was coming. Maybe there was some uncertainty around how strong the winds would be and how much rain would fall, but I remember debating in the House about something else last Wednesday, and talking about the oncoming Fiona and the high winds that would accompany it. I am wondering if he could comment on what we might have done differently, in terms of being ready beforehand. He talked about two days ago the province asking for the army and a day later, it came. What if the armed forces had been there before the storm hit? Would that have made a difference? Would they be already helping to clear streets? Would they be helping do all the things that are going on now? We would have been ahead of the game. Is there anything we could have done to prepare beforehand? We knew this was coming.

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Mr. Sean Casey

Sep/26/22 10:52:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this may actually be a question of process. The process right now is that the federal government responds to requests from the provinces for the deployment of federal assets. In this case, virtually immediately after that request was made, the assets were made available. I am not aware whether there is a process or a mechanism for a province to pre-emptively make that request. Perhaps, given the clarity of the forecasts, this would be a situation where that might be explored. The other thing I would say, in terms of climate change and resilience, is that Prince Edward Island is and will be on the cutting edge of climate change adaptation as a result of substantial investments by our government in the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation in St. Peter's Bay, which is now churning out experts in the field.

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Hon. Rob Moore (Fundy Royal, CPC)

Sep/26/22 10:54:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to speak tonight to this very important topic. I want to mention at the outset that I will be splitting my time with the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan. Last week, people from across Atlantic Canada did what they could do to prepare for a storm that was being described as a severe threat and potentially historic. As we all know by now, those descriptions were accurate. Hurricane Fiona was indeed severe and historic. Sadly, it was also tragic. I want to echo the sentiments that have been expressed in this House today. Those who have lost a loved one are in our thoughts at this terrible time. Our thoughts are also with those who have lost homes or businesses or experienced extensive damage to their property, and with anyone who feels as though the road to recovery right now looks too long to bear. I want to thank the firefighters, police and paramedics who answered calls for help, putting themselves oftentimes in harm's way. I also want to thank the mayors leading their local recovery responses, and the premiers of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, who responded swiftly following hurricane Fiona's impact. Of course, I want to recognize every individual working on reconnecting families to power right across Atlantic Canada. These hard workers will be spending days away from their own families to help reconnect the thousands of homes that are still without power in the region. This includes the energy workers from Maine, who overcame the obstacles on their way to deliver much-needed aid to Nova Scotia. As emergency crews work day and night to restore power to communities across the regions hit by the hurricane, we are learning more about the extensive damage and the personal stories of Maritimers and Newfoundlanders of how they rode out the storm and are trying to recover. I want to give thanks as well to everyone who lends a hand to their neighbour and helps out. That is one of the things we have seen over and over again when we are met with challenging times. In Atlantic Canada, people look out for their neighbours and give them a hand. We have heard story after story of that taking place in the days that have followed. Many of these stories follow along a theme that has become very familiar to Atlantic Canadians, and that is our strong sense of community. People have been coming together to help each other however they can. Anyone with a chainsaw quickly got to work to help clear fallen trees. Community centres opened their doors to welcome families needing to charge their phones, get warmed up or just have a hot cup of coffee. Our strong sense of community is just one of the reasons I am proud to be from Atlantic Canada. That sense of community is also absolutely essential at times like these. Provinces like Nova Scotia are no stranger to this type of strengthened sense of community after experiencing a tragedy. In 1917, another historic event happened in the province when a cargo ship carrying explosives collided with a steamship in Halifax Harbour. At the time, the world had never known a man-made explosion of that magnitude, and the devastation was immense. However, it only took a couple of hours after the Halifax explosion before trains started making their way toward the city to deliver supplies and people willing to lend a hand at the city's darkest moment. The speed at which neighbouring communities and provinces mobilized to provide relief all those many years ago is a testament to the strength of Atlantic Canadians, and it is the same strength we are seeing today. Another tradition we are still seeing today is the willingness of our neighbours to the south to lend a hand when things get tough. Even 106 years after the Halifax explosion, the Province of Nova Scotia still sends a Christmas tree to the City of Boston every year to express its gratitude for Boston's contributions to the relief efforts in 1917. In 2022, our American neighbours once again answered the call for help, but this time around, those efforts were stalled by red tape and bureaucratic hoops to jump through just to enter Canada to lend a hand. The ArriveCAN app has been a disaster since it was first launched. Border crossings with little or no cell service rendered the app useless, and there was no consideration for seniors or individuals who simply did not have a smart phone. Travellers were mistakenly told to quarantine when they were not required to. With all the confusion created by ArriveCAN, there has been an untold amount of fraud, as innocent Canadians fell victim to scams in their attempts to accommodate the complex and inconsistent rules imposed by the federal government. Entire industries, including the tourism industries in my own riding of Fundy Royal, have been negatively impacted by the ArriveCAN app, but even as this bad border policy hurt communities and businesses that depend on cross-border travel, the Liberal government doubled down on its policies. On Sunday, we saw the most egregious example of just how bad the ArriveCAN app was when the Liberal border policy led to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston indicating that U.S. power crews had been delayed at the border while trying to enter Canada to join recovery efforts. The hurricane recovery is time-sensitive. When families are disconnected from one another or cannot call for help or cannot heat up food for their children, every minute matters. Any delay in support to help Atlantic Canadians trying to recover after the storm is completely unacceptable. The Minister of Emergency Preparedness said yesterday that any delay that may have taken place at the border was inconsequential. It was a pretty bold statement to make from his home, which has power, to families who do not yet know when they will have power. I use this one impediment that could stand in the way of this recovery as an example of a policy that does not make sense, because we know that the ArriveCAN app will no longer be required starting this weekend. I would urge the government to drop it immediately. We can see the damage that a policy that is not well thought out can do. That leads me to other issues around recovery. There are agreements between the federal government and the provinces for compensation for those who need it for rebuilding homes, farms and businesses. We have to make sure we do not allow red tape, bureaucratic excuses or delays to impede Atlantic Canadians from getting the help they so desperately will need after this storm. Members of the government continue to say they are standing with everyone affected by this storm, but they also must be careful not to stand in the way. The federal government's disaster financial assistance arrangements have been put in place to provide financial assistance to provincial and territorial governments in the event of a large-scale natural disaster. However, this assistance does not flow immediately for Canadians who are suffering now, so I ask that we all work together to reduce bureaucracy that stands between Canadians and the help they need as quickly as possible. While the intention of many of these programs is good, we need to make sure that accessibility remains paramount. We have seen over and over in the last few years that the government can turn on a dime if it wants to, and there is no excuse not to put that same focus and energy into supporting Atlantic Canadians in their time of need. This hurricane has caused extensive damage throughout the Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador, but together we stand committed to doing everything we can to once again get Atlantic Canadians through this. I want to thank everyone who has pulled together, in big ways or small, to help their neighbour and to help their community. Together, we are going to build once again for a brighter future. We need everyone pulling together to make that happen, at the municipal level and the provincial level and, indeed, at the federal level. I would urge the federal government to make sure we break down every barrier that would prevent Atlantic Canadians and the provinces of Atlantic Canada from receiving the help they need in this time that is so crucial.

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Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport, Lib.)

Sep/26/22 11:03:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is so important that we are here tonight to talk about what we can do to help people who are affected by this in Atlantic Canada and throughout Quebec. It is also really important that we stick to the facts. Earlier today, in question period and throughout the afternoon, we have been hearing some misinformation about some occurrences. I just want to read into the record something provided to me by the member for Halifax West. It is a news article that states: Nova Scotia Power says there were no issues delaying American power crews from crossing the border to help repair the electrical grid from the devastation of hurricane Fiona. On Sunday, the utility company and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston had both said an issue related to the controversial ArriveCAN app [which will be optional as of Sunday] was delaying power crews from crossing into Canada. In a new statement Monday afternoon, Nova Scotia Power spokeswoman Jacqueline Foster says there was some confusion about the app but it is now confirmed there were no problems. I hope that sets the record straight for everybody in the House tonight.

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Hon. Rob Moore

Sep/26/22 11:04:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it illustrates perfectly how useless this program has become. The hon. member speaks about a program that did cause delays in crews from Maine crossing the New Brunswick to get to Nova Scotia. It is a program the government is going to get rid of on Saturday, but it will not get rid of it today to prevent any delays at the border for mutual assistance. The member read a quote; I will read a quote: “I do know that there was a situation where some crews from Maine were having an issue at the border,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told reporters during a Sunday morning press conference. “We became aware of that, we alerted the federal government. My understanding is that that was dealt with pretty quickly. But…there was an issue to begin with.” I take Premier Houston at his word that there was a delay, and there is no excuse for it. The government knows this is a program that has never worked, but now it is actually working to delay help we desperately need, so let us get rid of the program right now.

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Ms. Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, NDP)

Sep/26/22 11:05:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are gathered here tonight of course to send our support to our friends from coast to coast to coast who are faced with the aftermath of these natural disasters. We are talking about the importance of taking action now, and there is no question that needs to be done. There is also a question about what investment needs to be made and whether the government should be making investments in a proactive way to ensure climate adaptation projects are in place. Would the member support more investments in proactive climate adaptation projects, instead of always waiting for disasters that are often coming our way in a much more severe manner, as we are seeing now?

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Hon. Rob Moore

Sep/26/22 11:07:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we need to be able to do both: adaptation and mitigation. We need to be able to do that, recognizing challenges coastal areas face, but we also have urgent and critical needs around the rebuilding of wharfs and other coastal resources that our local industry and communities depend on. We have had many hurricanes and other storms in the past that have caused damage from time to time, and one of the things we have to do to get industry, small business and communities back on their feet and individuals working again is make sure we have the right investments in community infrastructure that we can move forward and build together. That is something we are committed to helping our communities do, and we will stand with them every step of the way.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)

Sep/26/22 11:08:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this important debate tonight about the impacts of hurricane Fiona on eastern Canada. As members know, I represent a riding in Alberta. We live in a big country, where a natural disaster could affect one part of the country and not another. I also know we are a community of solidarity, where people in Alberta follow events in other parts of the country and are feeling a deep sense of solidarity and a desire to help. There are many Albertans with close familial and ancestral connections with Atlantic Canada, who are really following in horror the impacts of this hurricane and would like me to share on their behalf the sense of solidarity and the desire they have to see their government come to the aid of those in need. Just as when western Canada has faced natural disasters, such as the B.C. floods, Atlantic Canada was with us, in the same way my province and my constituents are fully behind Atlantic Canada and are calling on the government to have a strong, effective and continuous response. The lead to this response from within our caucus is coming from the Atlantic caucus, and I want to salute and recognize the excellent work being done by members of that caucus, including the member for Cumberland—Colchester, who put forward the proposal to have this emergency debate tonight. Of course I also want to recognize the engagement of our leader and the powerful speech he gave tonight as well. What really stuck with me from our leader's speech was his saying that we do not want this to be another situation in which there is an “A” for the announcement and an “F” on the follow-through. Sometimes commitments are made when a story is in the news, when there is a focus on the situation, and it is very acute as it is happening. Then there is the question of whether the government and the rest of the country are really there through the follow-up, through the rebuilding process that must continue long after the story is not in the news anymore and attention has shifted to other issues. Is there the follow-through? Also, is the government making announcements but then severely delayed in actually delivering the results, or is the government responding quickly enough? The opposition will be there, led by our Atlantic caucus, in pushing strongly for follow-through, for efficiency, and for the government to support the rebuilding that is required, not just while the story is in the news but in fact over the long term. We need to have a results-oriented approach that measures the results that are achieved, that measures the concrete impacts, that invests the dollars that are required and really measures those results. Canadians can be assured that our opposition will be diligently following up on this issue for the long haul to make sure those results are achieved, or certainly to do all we can from this side of the House to ensure they are achieved. I want to speak tonight in particular to highlight one issue that we have seen with the government's response. It is about the issue of matching programs. There is a problem with the way the government has consistently developed and delivered matching programs. The problem has been that the government identifies one organization or a small group of large organizations for matching support, and it says it will match every donation that is made to organization X or to this group of five organizations. However, the government does not offer matching programs to all of the organizations that are involved in a response. I have encountered this issue, particularly in the area of international development. In cases in which we have seen disasters around the world, this was a major issue brought to my attention by international development organizations working in Lebanon, responding to the humanitarian needs associated with the invasion of Ukraine, and most recently in the situation in Pakistan, where there are organizations, maybe small organizations, diaspora-led organizations, organizations with really deep connections and a significant footprint on the ground, that are left out of a government matching program because it becomes easier for the government to say that it is going to match with these very large organizations that have more experience dealing with government and that we have established relationships with. It is easier to say that it is going to match a contribution to this big player as opposed to saying it is going to match donations to all of the organizations that are doing this work. I have encountered and learned about this issue in the area of international development, but now we are seeing this as part of a domestic disaster response. Again, the government, in the process of a matching program, is choosing one organization. In this case, it is the Red Cross. I want to say at the outset that I think the Red Cross does excellent work. I also think the idea of matching programs, of encouraging individuals to donate and saying that when someone makes a donation, the government is going to match those dollars, is a very good concept. It expresses the shared solidarity that we need here, which is not the government acting alone, but the government being part of a solution and supporting individual philanthropy in collaboration with government. In principle, that is really good. When we have a system that matches donations to some organizations and not others, not only do those smaller organizations, which may have a bigger presence on the ground and may be led by local people and plugged into local communities, lose out on the benefit of the matching dollars, but they actually lose out on donations as well. When people say they want to be part of responding to, in this case, the recovery efforts around hurricane Fiona, or in previous cases, the flooding in Pakistan or the situation in Lebanon, people instinctively want to give to those organizations that are receiving matching, as opposed to the organizations that do not. Organizations tell me that they get calls from previous donors who say they were going to donate to what they were doing, but they actually want to donate to another organization that is getting matched. We see how, through a government policy, by matching donations to some organizations but not others, the government ends up incentivizing private donors to change their donation behaviour from organizations they were previously giving to, to organizations that are matched. The government is, through this matching policy, directing donations from some organizations to others. That is a problem. The effect of offering matching to some organizations is that it might take away from groups that have a long track record and have been working on the ground. It also creates some level of suspicion. People ask why the government is not matching them. Is it because it has somehow determined the organization is not good enough for the match? That is not the reason. In fact, some of these organizations may be more effective in their response, but they are not receiving the match because government instinctively goes back to the same organizations to provide that match every time. Having raised this issue multiple times in other contexts, I want to implore the government again to really reconsider this policy. There are different ways of doing this. The government could identify, in some global sense, all of the donations that are made to charitable organizations related to flood relief, and the government could then put that same amount of money aside in a fund, which it then distributes. It would not have to necessarily match every dollar that was given to an organization to exactly the same organization. However, if it put aside an amount of money that was equivalent to the total donations and then disbursed that, it would at least address the problem right now of disincentivizing donations to organizations that are not matched. I think that would be a good way of exploring the response. Every Canadian who donates to hurricane relief, in some way, should see their donation matched, whether it is to the Red Cross or to organizations that are smaller and embedded in local communities. The Knights of Columbus council in my area might want to raise money and transfer it to a Knights of Columbus council in Atlantic Canada. There might be small local food banks that are raising money, locally and across the country. I would say those worthy efforts deserve the same kind of matching support. Again, I have raised this in the House on past occasions. It is a bit frustrating to feel these simple, non-partisan solutions, which say we need to reform these matching programs, do not seem to be heeded. It has been raised on past instances yet it remains a problem. I implore the government to revisit this issue and to look for mechanisms to match donations in a way that is inclusive, that represents the diversity of organizations and that supports small local organizations as well as the larger ones. Again I want to share with the House that my constituents, the people of western Canada, are very much behind and in support of the people in eastern Canada who are struggling right now. We want to see the government have their backs over the long haul.

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Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport, Lib.)

Sep/26/22 11:18:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague knows quite a lot about international development and I look forward to our next chat in the elevator on this topic. I did want to highlight, because I had the opportunity to visit the Red Cross in Nova Scotia this summer, its extensive network of community-level contacts and relationships. The type of rapid response that these donations will rely on are those relationships and the ease of access with which community-level groups, such as the one the member highlighted, the Knights of Columbus, that might be doing something at a community level, would be able to contact their local Red Cross. That said, the member also highlighted, which is off topic a bit, some of the international aid. The Humanitarian Coalition, as he is probably aware, is actually a coalition of 12 organizations that are quite diverse, but I take his comments under advisement, which I think are worth considering. I would ask the member if he could explain how his constituents out in Alberta might be supportive of this important restoration effort.

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Mr. Garnett Genuis

Sep/26/22 11:19:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to underline that nothing in my speech was to take away from the great work that the Red Cross is doing in eastern Canada or in other parts of the world. Of course, it does have partnerships with local organizations, and I hope it will do its best to engage some of those local organizations. However, fundamentally, it does not change the point that there are many other worthy organizations that are not getting this matching support and, essentially, it puts the Red Cross in the position of being the disbursers of public money, which is a role that we would normally conceive of as being the government's. We should work to provide that support in the form of matching to all of the organizations that are doing good work, not because the organizations being matched are not worthy of it but because there are other organizations that are worthy of it as well. I know my constituents will be actively involved in this relief effort and I would like to see all of the donations that my constituents make matched, regardless of the organizations they give to.

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