Mr. Speaker, at the outset, I want to indicate that I am sharing my time with the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, and I welcome the opportunity to participate in this emergency debate.

At this late hour in the House, I expect that I am the only member currently sitting who experienced this weather event in Atlantic Canada directly. There were some on this side. I was in the epicentre of it, along with a number of my colleagues. I know there were a number of other members who experienced this event as well.

I can honestly say, and I will speak to Prince Edward Island, that in Prince Edward Island we were well prepared. I give full marks to those emergency agencies, including my own colleague, the minister responsible, and the provincial government, for getting the message out that this was a very serious weather event that people should heed. We were well advised. All we could do, though, was wait and hope that it would not be as traumatic as the warnings that were being given to us. All of the mechanisms of government worked from a warning perspective, and that is why we had minimal loss of life. We cannot minimize any loss of life, as it is too much, but the implications were to that effect.

We were aware, and in fact I returned to my riding when I heard the weather forecast was getting more and more severe. I chose to return to be there.

I can honestly say that it was one of these weather alerts that woke me up at about 3:30 in the morning. I had decided that I had better take my phone to bed with me. It was pretty nasty and I was unsure how it was going to go. I am glad I did, because the emergency app went off. It woke me up to what was happening. I looked at it, and then I thought I had better look outside. I could see the trees violently shaking, an experience I had never experienced before. I was looking out and then I watched them suddenly start crashing on the house. Yes, those emergency systems did work.

I am going to focus my comments on two areas of Atlantic Canada and Prince Edward Island that responded very well. The fishing industry, the fishers, primarily, removed their very expensive boats from the water, so they listened. They took the advice of all governments. They removed them to take them out of harm's way. There was no loss of vessels. However, they could not remove their fishing gear. We are now getting some assessment on that. The damage is significant.

Farmers were able to store their equipment as well as they could in buildings. They took precautions. However, they could not take their crops out of the field. That is where extensive damage has occurred to the farming industry. In the two industries, fishing and farming, the farmers and the fishers took all the steps they were advised to take to mitigate their losses, yet there were significant losses, and they are still being incurred.

That is where the government has to be prepared to stand with these industries to ensure that we provide resources to mitigate those losses, because they did everything in their power to reduce the damage they would have. We are still assessing that. Then it gets to this issue: We have had infrastructure damage, significant infrastructure damage, to our small craft harbours across the region. That has been a situation that has been growing for some time.

I have been listening to some of the speeches in the House saying that the government has to move faster and faster. I spoke to a farmer yesterday and, in fact, I was all across my riding on Saturday and Sunday, at most of the ports, meeting with those who were primarily impacted. It was important. I was listening to a farmer, and he said that even if we gave him money today, he could not hire a contractor to begin the repairs that he has to do.

Let us temper the expectation, because some say that we are not moving fast enough and we should be there. I take the Prime Minister and the ministers at their word, that we will be there whenever the ask is made. This has to come through provinces, same as a request. The Government of Canada cannot send the military on its own. It has to wait for provinces to request it. We have met all of the requests that the provinces have made so far.

The Government of Canada has been acting as quickly, diligently and judiciously as possible, but there are obstacles. We may not be able to get the necessary repairs made to some critical infrastructure in a timely enough manner simply because of the restraints of not having contractors to do it.

I also want to acknowledge the tremendous work of the utility workers in Prince Edward Island and all the provinces in getting the power up. We must recognize that we cannot just bring in people off the street to supplement and double the effort, because these are highly trained, skilled people. This is a very dangerous occupation. We cannot minimize the time it is going to take, but it is a necessity in dealing with a weather event.

I heard during the debate this evening that we have had these events before, that we have had ice storms and we have had hurricanes. Let us understand that this event which occurred in Atlantic Canada early Saturday morning and throughout the day was the first weather event of its kind recorded in Canada. These are the first reported meteorologic conditions ever recorded in Canada. We have never had an event like this before. The events are getting more and more serious.

This is a significant event. We have to take the time to acknowledge and thank all of the first responders who could not stay indoors during this event like I did. I took the advice that was given to us and did not dare go out after seeing the conditions. Unless one actually lived in some of the higher-impact areas, nobody could describe to me what I experienced, and I have experienced some wild storms, as I am sure other members have. This was a very scary event, and the damage is significant.

Our government will be there, but in some areas, like small craft harbours, I think we are going to have to be innovative. We may have to deliver money to the local harbour authorities to get the work done quickly. We know the time it takes to go through the process, and then often the government is held to account: “You're not following due process.” We cannot have it both ways.

This is the first-ever event of this magnitude to occur in Canada. If we are going to respond in a timely manner, we are going to have to make some first approaches as well. In doing this for infrastructure, I would challenge my own government to work with the local harbour authorities when it comes to small craft harbour infrastructure to get timely repairs done quickly. This means it may not go to public tender, because that takes time. We are going to have to be tolerant of that and supportive.

We must recognize that the farmers and fishers took all the steps they could to minimize their losses and damage, but in the areas that we depend on to feed this country, those crops were still exposed to Mother Nature, and that is where the damage occurred. Within the fishing industry, the fishing gear was still at sea. We are going to have to respond to those costs that are not covered by insurance for fishers, and we are going to have to build.

As it was raised a couple of times in the debate this evening, we can build infrastructure to withstand. I am probably the only member in the House who was part of the design approval for the Confederation Bridge. The Confederation Bridge performed as it was designed to perform during this catastrophic weather event. It had no damage. I recall getting into a debate with the design people when it was being approved. I was the provincial minister responsible at the time. They were putting in a design for category 4 hurricanes, and I said that we were over-designing a bit, which was not the case. So, yes, we can design infrastructure to withstand the weather patterns that are coming.

In closing, all I can say is that we better be prepared to put in the investments to protect the critical coastal infrastructure that we have, that we depend on, because Atlantic Canada is the most prone part of Canada to hurricane events coming up on a regular basis. We must invest in the infrastructure that will protect the fishing ports of Atlantic Canada and the infrastructure that we need. It will be expensive, but we have to be there as a government.

I challenge my own government that we have to be there. We have to be creative, and we have to be a heck of a lot faster in getting projects and repairs under way to deal with these catastrophic losses that were incurred.

Bobby Morrissey

$524,553.00