Late afternoon Friday, Quebec Public Security Minister Martin\u00a0Coiteux\u00a0confirmed his province has asked for military assistance to help battle what he called “historic” flooding. The federal government confirmed it had officially received the request and would respond favourably.<\/p>\n
During a news conference in Montreal,\u00a0Coiteux\u00a0warned the\u00a0situation will get worse in the next\u00a0few days and would take several weeks to subside.<\/p>\n
But he\u00a0said the government is mobilized and ready to handle the emergency as best as it can.<\/p>\n
“Certainly this will test our resilience, but we’re up to it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Trudeau says federal help ready if needed for Quebec, Ontario floods<\/strong>0:36<\/p>\n The federal Government Operations Centre had\u00a0beefed up its standby team as a precaution and is monitoring the flooding around the clock daily. The centre serves as the hub to co-ordinate the federal response to natural disasters and other emergencies.<\/p>\n Bardsley said assistance provided will depend\u00a0on the requests, but noted that for the Fort\u00a0McMurray\u00a0fire, support included the Canadian Armed Forces,\u00a0RCMP\u00a0officers,\u00a0geomatics, supplies from the Health Portfolio’s National Emergency Stockpile System and coordination support from the Government of Canada Operations Centre.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Public Safety Canada also administers the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements program\u00a0that helps provinces and territories cover the costs of response and recovery after\u00a0large natural disasters “where these costs exceed what they might reasonably be expected to bear on their own.”<\/p>\n Heavy rainfall has affected communities in western Quebec and eastern and southern Ontario, causing home evacuation orders and the cancellation or delay of airline flights. The slow-moving system is heading to the Maritimes, with flooding in parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia possible\u00a0this weekend.<\/p>\n Earlier today, National Defence\u00a0said it was closely monitoring the situation and preparing to deploy where needed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “Canadian Armed Forces personnel are in continuous liaison with Public Safety, and other federal partners,” DND spokesman Evan Koronewski said in an email.\u00a0“The CAF diligently plans for various contingencies to be ready to fulfil the direction of government, including the potential contribution to a federal response to an emergency in Canada.”<\/p>\n NDP Leader Tom Mulcair\u00a0said it should be “all hands on deck” as the flooding gets worse in coming days.<\/p>\n NDP Leader Tom Mulcair speaks to reporters during a visit to Yamachiche, Que. to observe the effects of severe flooding. (CBC)<\/p>\n “I don’t think we should be waiting. At this stage in the game, it’s so clear that we’re heading for some record flooding …. we’ve got to start acting now,” he said in a telephone\u00a0interview with CBC News from Yamachiche, Que.<\/p>\n Mulcair\u00a0urged the government to set aside significant funds for more extreme weather events such as forest fires and floods that are linked to climate change.<\/p>\n “We’ve got to be adding more money to the pot, not less, because this type of flooding, this type of event that’s directly related to what we’re going to be seeing with global warming, we’ve got to be getting ready for it,” he said.<\/p>\n Goodale says he spoke to Quebec minister Friday about flooding<\/strong>0:48<\/p>\n Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said while you can’t link any single weather event to climate change, there is no doubt the impacts are longer-term, That is why the government is investing in\u00a0“adaptation,” from addressing buckling roads in the melting Arctic to researching resilient crops.<\/p>\n “This is something that is real. We are seeing the impacts of climate change, and that’s why we’re taking it seriously,” she said, adding the government is tackling climate change while creating green jobs for innovation and infrastructure.<\/p>\n Goodale’s office said\u00a0this year’s budget\u00a0included $2 billion for a Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund to support national, provincial and municipal infrastructure required to deal with the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A woman paddles a kayak past an abandoned car on a flooded residential street in Gatineau, Que., on Thursday. (Chris Wattie\/Reuters)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/flooding-canada-federal-assistance-1.4100938?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The federal government is keeping a close watch on severe flooding in regions right across Canada as it deploys\u00a0the military to battle “historic” water levels in Quebec. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office said the formal request for help from the military came late afternoon, but details on where the troops will be sent, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-77535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Evacuation orders, flight delays<\/h2>\n
![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4101907.1494009554!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/tom-mulcair.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMitigation funds<\/h2>\n
![\"quebec](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4101472.1494013944!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/quebec-flooding.jpg\")
<\/p>\n