Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aklavik is located on the west side of the Mackenzie Delta and, as we all know, global warming and shoreline erosion is a major problem. Mr. Speaker, I got a call, just before the House started, from the council in Aklavik with their concern with the shoreline erosion. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we, as government, realize that they had a major flood a number of years ago and they had to move the road inland because of the erosion on one of their service roads. Yet, Mr. Speaker, very little is being said from this government in regard to what we are doing to protect communities from shoreline erosion and, more importantly, the effects we’re seeing from climate change.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we do have some funding sources we’ve been getting into from Building Canada funds, Disaster Relief funds. I would just to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs exactly what is the department doing to assist the community of Aklavik, knowing that it has flooded over the years. We’re seeing the effects of global warming and shoreline erosion throughout the Mackenzie Delta. So I’d like to ask the Minister, does his department have any programs and services that communities can access to deal with shoreline erosion in that community?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m well aware of the flooding issue in Aklavik. I’ve been through a couple of them and I know that there was some shoreline erosion done a few years ago and that seems to have worked very well. There are some issues that still need to be taken care of. We do supply -- and I go back to this because I do all the time -- the communities with capital infrastructure money and they decide that if it’s a priority to have this work done, then they have the capital means to do so. If there are other programs out there, federal pots of money that we can access to assist the communities with some of the work that they propose to do, then we are willing to do that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this is a major fiscal undertaking by a community. There’s no way the community, with the resources they get through gas tax and whatnot, are going to have to deal with this problem. We’re talking millions of dollars here.
Mr. Speaker, under the Building Canada Fund in regard to infrastructure planning, there’s money available for research and development for climate change. I’d like to ask the Minister, have you considered looking at accessing some of these federal dollars through the Building Canada Fund for dealing with shore erosion in communities that are affected by climate change?
Mr. Speaker, a lot of the programs that we have applications that have come through for the Building Canada Fund, I have yet to see any application from the community. Maybe we should encourage them to put an application in with some of their requirements, and then we can go and look to access some of the money. If there’s money available for doing some research, then we can pursue that too. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, a number of years ago when they had the flood in Aklavik, as part of the Disaster Relief Fund you had to do a report at the end of the program in regard to infrastructure funding for the community. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs that under that plan they did identify that as an issue that had to be dealt with. I’d just like to ask the Minister to direct his department to seriously look at that report in regard to the last flood in Aklavik. What has the department done in regard to that report and why is it that you’re leaving the onus on the community and not the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, who is responsible for disaster relief?
Mr. Speaker, I will have discussions with the department and follow up on the Member’s comment on the report. I haven’t seen the report personally and I would be quite interested in having a look at it. I will follow up and see what recommendations or actions may have come out of the report because of the flood of a few years ago.
I’ll say again that we continue to assist communities in identifying a lot of their priorities and if shoreline erosion is one of the priorities from Aklavik, then we’d be willing to work with the community to try and identify sources of funding for the project and assist them any way we can coming forward with a proposal. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to formally invite the Minister to travel with myself to Aklavik, hopefully after the adjournment of this House, and deal with this problem, because I believe we have to deal with it this winter. We can’t wait for another flood next spring. It has to be put on the Minister’s priority list, because we are talking about the safety and the security of the community -- and erosion is a real threat to that community -- so we can avoid whatever, if that’s possible. I’d like to formally invite him to Aklavik after the adjournment of the House. With that, I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s available to bring his staff, the people that bring the cheques, and we’ll sign it off in Aklavik at the end of the House.
The Member is twisting my arm to get me into Aklavik, but I will make that commitment that I will make it into the Member’s community. With that, we probably will have staff. We’ll leave the chequebooks in Inuvik and then we’ll...Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
