Her pledge that “you can count on the federal government to be supportive and we will be here to help with reconstruction, in whatever way the province and the municipality wants us to be there,” rang particularly hollow when followed by the disclaimer that “The difficult part, of course, is understanding the pure quantum of what we’re looking at.”
Whoever in the Tory brain trust thought up Wednesday’s strategy and lines should get a primer in disaster management, and fast. Tearful residents of the devastated town wanted action, not words, and they got nothing. With the provincial government already committing $60 million and cutting $1,000 cheques, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is letting Parti Quebecois Premier Pauline Marois play the good fairy, while Raitt comes across as the stingy aunt.
Sure, there is the delicate nature of federal-provincial relations with a separatist government that tries to make Ottawa look bad at every turn. But that’s exactly why the Tories need to step up. Do they really want to give the minority PQ a boost through their inaction? Do they really think Marois would score points by criticizing assistance from Ottawa as interference? Do they really believe the townspeople of Lac Megantic are concerned about issues of jurisdiction right now?
Raitt is right on two points. First, it is impossible to know yet how much it will take to rebuild the shattered lives and infrastructure of Lac Megantic. Second, she is right to say that those responsible for this tragedy should pay for it. If the Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway is at fault, it – not the Canadian taxpayer – should foot the bill for damages.
But establishing responsibility, collecting payouts, and slogging through the legal morass that will ensue could take years. And even when those years are up, the persons and companies responsible may not have pockets deep enough to repair the damage.
To bridge this gap of time and cash, Raitt could have announced any number of concrete measures. She could have said that Ottawa would rebuild specific infrastructure, or immediately commit a certain minimum amount of money to reconstruction and personal assistance. She could have said that the federal government would seek to recover as much of these sums as possible from those responsible, by taking legal action directly or joining itself as a defendant in warranty to whatever suits are launched.
There is precedent for this in a series of lawsuits currently in process against tobacco companies. Every provincial government except Nova Scotia (which expects to do so shortly) has sued them for the costs they claim tobacco products have imposed on the public health care system, by making people sick with smoking-related illnesses. In the United States, such lawsuits have seen state governments awarded close to $250 billion over 25 years.
Why couldn’t the federal government deploy the same logic: pledge to fix the damage caused by the disaster and then sue those eventually found responsible? Had Raitt delivered such a message, it would have both comforted the people of Lac Megantic and been financially responsible.
It would also have been the human thing to do. But humanity isn’t the Tories’ strong suit, and that may prove the Achilles’ heel of this government.
Unfortunately for Stephen Harper, it’s not just the people of Lac Megantic who don’t have the luxury of time: he doesn’t either. With his stock already rock-bottom in Quebec, and an election two years away, he cannot afford to botch the government’s response to this disaster. That is, unless he has already written the province off for 2015.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca
Author: Tasha Kheiriddin
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