James Bezan
Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, Manitoba · Conservative · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberals themselves are warning that public investment in ag research and development has fallen by 15%. Private sector R and D outsourced to universities is down 77%. The number of firms conducting research in Canada has dropped by 30%.”
“Mr. Speaker, let us separate the fiction and actually have some reality here. Most of our troops are not seeing a bump in their paycheque because the Liberals continue to claw it back at every opportunity. Rents are up by more than 5% for military housing. Housing support is down in more than 10 of the major housing posting locations.”
“Mr. Speaker, everything the Liberals say about our military is just an illusion. They promised our troops raises, but they never materialized. Retention benefits for reserves are missing in action.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister has driven Canada into a full-scale recession. Our economy has been shrinking for three of the last four quarters. We are the only G20 country in an economic downturn. While the government tries to downplay it, families know something is wrong. They feel it every day at the checkout counter.”
“Mr. Speaker, I just want to poke holes in the justice minister's argument over the length of debate on Bill C-16 . We only debated this for two days at second reading, and then we let it go on division so we could get it to the justice committee for study.”
“Madam Speaker, although we are legislators, it is our responsibility as members of Parliament to carry out our fiduciary duties and responsibilities to the taxpayers of Canada and to properly vet all of the legislation and spending of the government. This bill opens up a huge abyss of extra spending.”
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“We want to make sure that the Canadian Armed Forces can be all it can be, and can be there to help Canadians when needed, but that means we have to fix the recruitment crisis. We have 10,000 troops who are undertrained and undeployable. We have another shortage of 8,000 troops on file because so many have left the Canadian Armed Forces because of the current situation under the Liberal neglect and mismanagement. We did a report on aid to civil power in the last Parliament, through the Standing Committee on National Defence. We talked about the role of the Canadian Armed Forces in domestic operations. There are things we should look at, and the government has responded to the report. I am more than happy to answer some questions about it if anyone is interested, because of my role as vice-chair of that committee.”
“I would just say, though, that whether or not the Canadian Armed Forces has the capabilities right now to carry on its operations as well as to support aid to civil power through Operation LENTUS domestically, we should always know that we do not want the provinces to fall back and think that only the armed forces can provide the relief when it is called upon, because in times of crisis, the armed forces may be elsewhere. The current situation, thanks to the lost Liberal decade, is that we do not have enough personnel, we do not have modern equipment, and our air force is in desperate need of new fighter aircraft. The Hercs are starting to age out, and the C-17s already have over 15 years on them.”
“Those communities are in a really tough situation, so it was important to get everybody out of there to safety. Some people may have questions around the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces with respect to their use of military personnel and equipment to help fight the forest fires. The provinces always have the ability to ask, under part VI of the National Defence Act, for aid to civil power. We need to make sure our provincial authorities can rely on them when needed. The Province of Manitoba has used that twice now in the evacuation of both Pukatawagan and Pimicikamak. The province asked; the armed forces delivered. There has been talk here already about dual use of different aircraft.”
“Nobody can overlook the magnitude of how serious the tragedy is and how dangerous the situation is. It is important that people follow the evacuation orders that are coming from the province and from their local municipalities. Let us make sure they are not going back to homes when they are in the line of the fires. I am proud to continue to serve as the shadow minister for national defence. I want to thank our leader, Pierre Poilievre, for again putting his trust in me to carry forward this portfolio. I want to give a shout-out to the Royal Canadian Air Force, which has stepped up, providing logistical support as well as aircraft to help evacuate some of the remote northern communities, like Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and Pukatawagan, and the Pimicikamak Cree Nation.”
“Other provinces have kicked in, with personnel and equipment from Alberta, B.C., New Brunswick and P.E.I., to help fight the wildfires across Manitoba, and there has been help from Parks Canada. I want to thank all of them for chipping in. We have water bombers. We are lucky in Manitoba as we have a fleet of water bombers. Seven of them are operated by Babcock, and they are the CL-415 and CL-215 water bombers. Babcock also has three 690 “bird-dog” aircraft. Air Spray, which is an Alberta-based company, has four water bombers on contract to the Province of Manitoba full-time. It has four of the CL-415 aircraft. Minnesota has also chipped in with a couple of water bombers and one “bird-dog” plane. Resources have been brought in, and people are fighting the fires. (1950) As we just heard, the smoke is everywhere.”
“That is a large credit to the provincial emergency management organization and the emergency management co-ordinators right across the province, at the provincial level but also at the municipal level, which have all come together to support the fight against the wildfires. The Canadian Red Cross and the Manitoba emergency social services are running shelters, making sure everybody has a place to go when they are evacuated and that they are cared for. Manitobans have also opened up their homes and their wallets. They are helping everyone who has been evacuated from their homes because of the out-of control wildfires. The number of evacuees stands at over 17,000 in Manitoba as of last night.”
“They have all stepped up and done what they could in a fire that was completely out of control and moving so fast over a week ago that it consumed and overran our community. There have been so many volunteers who have been there, stepped up and helped out. I thank the municipal leaders and their staff in all the municipalities in the affected area for being there, providing guidance and support to those who were evacuated. The Province of Manitoba has done an outstanding job of working with the municipalities and with frontline responders, making sure we have resources in place.”
“Evacuation orders in the Lac du Bonnet rural municipality and the rural municipality of Alexander have been lifted, and people are now starting to return home. Unfortunately, there was the tragic loss of two lives in our riding: Sue and Richie Nowell. I want to extend my sincere condolences to their family and friends. I know this is heartbreaking for their sons, TC, Ryland and Emmett, and this is a huge loss for our community. The Nowells were volunteers who were active in the community, and they were loved and respected by all their neighbours and friends. People who lost their homes and cottages can rebuild them, but the lives lost or the memories that were lost in those homes can never be replaced. I have to extend my greatest gratitude to the first responders: firefighters, police and EMTs.”
“The forest fires we are dealing with really speak to the challenges we are having in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and they are something we have experienced across the country in the past. The Lac du Bonnet area is in my riding. The Bird River fire is largely in my riding. We know that in Manitoba there is a province-wide emergency in effect. The Bird River fire is now over 198,000 hectares. It is out of control, and I am sure it will be over 200,000 hectares by the end of tonight, which makes it the largest forest fire in the province. Almost 1,000 people were evacuated because of that fire when it first started in the Lac du Bonnet area. There were 28 homes and cottages destroyed, mainly on Wendigo Road.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate you on your new role in the chair. You look great. I know it is something you are going to do an incredibly good job at, and that you will let me speak on and on tonight as I need to. Since this is my first opportunity to rise in the chamber, I want to send out my thanks to the great people of Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman for putting their trust in me again, for the eighth time. It is something to always get that support, but it is a humbling experience, because the chair I sit in is their chair, and I get to amplify their voices, which I will be doing tonight. I want to thank my campaign team and the volunteers for making the election possible, and of course my family, who started on this journey with me over 22 years ago when I first ran for the nomination. I am glad we are having this debate tonight.”