Prime Minister introduces Minister Chuck Strahl to announce funding for flooding mitigation in Mission, British Columbia

Good afternoon.  Greetings everyone. 

I'm pleased to be here at the Lower Mainland and to be joined by a couple of my colleagues. 

First of all, a member for Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission, Randy Kamp.  Nice to have you here Randy.  Give Randy a hand. 

And the member for Abbotsford, Ed Fast. 

And of course, needless to say, I'm here with the Minister of Agriculture, the Regional Minister for British Columbia and the member for Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon Chuck Strahl. 

I also want to mention a couple of other people who are with us today.  I see Grant McNally, former MP, and his son Graden are here.  Great to see you here Grant and Graden. 

And a couple of local mayors.  I'd like to recognize George Fergusson, the mayor of Abbotsford.  And I want to make special mention of the mayor of Mission, James Atebe, who's with us here today as well.

Now, the reason I say "special mention" is probably a few of you know that James and I go back a ways.  In fact, we were actually roommates 25 years ago this year in residence in Calgary at the University of Calgary.  We were much younger then.  I don't think either of us thought we'd be running for public office, and I don't think we were engaged in activities that would have got us elected at the time either. But we will keep that to ourselves. 

Before I turn the mic over to Minister Strahl for his announcement, I wanted to make a few brief remarks.

I'm in BC this week to attend the International Gateways and Corridors conference in Vancouver. 

I'll be speaking tomorrow morning about what Ottawa and the provinces are doing and need to do to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities that lie ahead for Canada in the global economy. 

But government officials an our MPs here in the area have been briefing me on the high potential for severe flooding on the Fraser and throughout BC this spring, and I want to take this opportunity to get a firsthand look at the emergency preparations. 

Minister Strahl and I took a helicopter tour of the floodplain earlier today and I want to thank engineer Paula Santos, the on-reserve dike mitigation program manager for leading that tour and for providing a thorough briefing to the Minister and myself. 

Paula gave us a good sense of the scope of the challenge and what has to be done to minimize the risk of flooding in this area. 

I'm confident in the efforts that officials are making and I want to acknowledge everyone who's been contributing to the overall flood mitigation measures. 

I know a lot of people have been working very hard to prepare for whatever is coming, and Canada's New Government is doing its best to help. 

Just before I hand of to Minister Strahl, I want to highlight the fact that we're here because a few weeks ago the government of British Columbia asked us for our help in this matter. 

In my view, this is Canadian federalism as its best, federal, provincial and local governments working together to get things done for all Canadians. 

So thank you, merci beaucoup, and I'll turn it over to you, Chuck.

All News