SoVote

Hon. Bill Blair (President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness, Lib.)

Jun/5/23 2:25:05 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the strong advocacy from every member of the House on behalf of their communities. There are currently 370 wildfires burning in Canada, 217 of which are out of control. There have been over 26,000 evacuations from communities right across the country. In response to a request for assistance from the Provinces of Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia, we have deployed the Canadian Armed Forces into those three provinces. In each location, Canadian Armed Forces are now in the field assisting with firefighting efforts.

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Context: House Hansard - 206 - Jun/5/23

Mr. Blake Desjarlais

Jun/5/23 10:30:33 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for that question, because it is something that we often do not have the opportunity to speak about in this place. Indigenous people have long stewarded Turtle Island, North America, when catastrophes happen, from floods to natural disasters, such as forest fires, as well as huge, immense, prolonged winters. We have a history, stories and knowledge. The history that is present here and that we often talk about is short. It is a small piece of what Canada is. Canada is an immensely ancient place, a place with tradition and knowledge. Indigenous people have been installed in a position to care for and administer this. We know about prescribed burns. When we take care of forest fires at a low-risk level by destroying the fuel in the forest early, rather than stacking it up by banning prescribed burns, then we deal with what would become a much worse fire, which is what we are seeing in Alberta today. If we had invested and allowed indigenous people the jurisdiction and the resources to do what traditional wildland firefighting looks like, we would not have had this issue; we would stand a chance.

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Context: House Hansard - 206 - Jun/5/23

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

Jun/5/23 10:51:57 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, the member gave a good overview of the federal contributions to wildfire fighting in Canada. In my speech, I mentioned the fact that a growing number of experts, including Mike Flannigan, have been calling for the formation of a dedicated firefighting service in Canada; something that would complement what the armed forces do, but people who are specifically trained for this. He suggested maybe 20 teams of 20 each, which is about how many people we bring in from other countries every fire season. I am wondering if the member could comment on that idea, which would be available to all provinces as needed.

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Context: House Hansard - 206 - Jun/5/23

Mr. Rick Perkins

Jun/5/23 11:22:28 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, that is a great question. In everything, we can always do better, but in this case, because this was so unprecedented, I think things came together fairly well. I heard, and still hear, enormous frustration from residents of my community who ask why all of it did not happen with a faster response. With 40-kilometre-per-hour winds and this thing rolling through like a freight train, it was very difficult to react as quickly as people wanted everyone to. The member talked about federal resources. I think that is a great idea. I think one of the things this experience has taught me is that the federal government's role is coordinating and trying to find all the assets that are across the country. Right now, there are not any available. That was a challenge. The federal government should have some ability to have some equipment to add. This is not the first or primary job of the armed forces. We were thankful they could come in, but they are not professional firefighters. They do not have professional firefighting equipment. They do not have water bombers. There were six water bombers that had to come on Friday night from Montana. There were three from Newfoundland and a number from New Brunswick. For Nova Scotia, that will be part of the analysis afterwards. It needs to have a little more ability. I think it is an important area we should be looking at from the federal government to see what kind of resources we could have available more permanently.

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