Leader of the Government, on the evening of April 27, 2019, a dike collapsed in the Deux-Montagnes region. Within minutes, water flooded into 6,000 properties, 6,000 houses, leaving more than 6,000 families homeless.

This was obviously an unimaginable disaster for these people and for the municipality of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, and it also seriously affected the neighbouring municipalities that had to work on reinforcing the dike and preventing a recurrence in 2020. The municipalities had to spend unbelievable amounts of money on preventive measures.

The government created a fund to prevent natural disasters and to carry out the work. It announced a $2-billion infrastructure plan, the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, or DMAF, to build dikes and carry out work to try to prevent these situations.

The municipalities applied, but they were denied a large portion of the funding they requested because the work had been done on an emergency basis, before they could qualify for the program.

The Quebec minister responsible for infrastructure and the municipalities wrote to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Ms. McKenna, asking her if it was at least possible to revise the eligibility dates to cover urgent expenses that had been incurred as a preventive measure by the region’s municipalities. Minister McKenna’s response was negative.

The Government of Canada refuses to cover the very reasonable expenses incurred on a priority basis by the elected officials representing these municipalities. What does the government plan to do to fix this situation?

Mr. Speaker, you will understand that, given the importance of this issue, I had to present it in a way that would not only enable the Leader of the Government in the Senate to thank me for the question, but that would also enable me to thank him for his answer, which is something I have not done very often to date.

I would like to remind the Liberal government of the promise that it made during the last election campaign, which can be found in its election platform under the heading “Disaster Response.” It reads:

We will make sure that people get the help they need when there is a federally declared disaster or emergency.

Leader, am I going to have to tell the mayors and residents of Saint-Eustache, Deux-Montagnes, Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, Pointe-Calumet and Saint-Joseph-du-Lac that the Liberal government is not going to keep its promises?