Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you may all know, Aklavik is an isolated community. Last year the only road to safety up to the foothills was washed out and the community was left to use their capital funding to pay for those costs. My question to the Minister of MACA is: What emergency assistance does MACA have available for communities that face flooding, such as Aklavik? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We look at it on an individual basis and see where the money would be best put. In Aklavik’s case, I know a couple of years ago they had used some money to fix up a lot of their roads in town. One of the things that we’ve just recently done during our meetings with other Ministers of emergency measures from across the country is Canada’s rolling out a Disaster Mitigation Program which would go towards mitigating situations such as the ones that we’re facing in Aklavik. If there’s an opportunity there to access some of the money – they’re still working out the details right now – this would be one of those projects that would be ideal for this type of program once the details are ironed out. Thank you.
Will the Minister have emergency funding set aside for the community of Aklavik in case the community faces a flood this year?
Again, Mr. Speaker, I say we will look at it on an individual basis and if there is a lot of flooding in some of the communities, we have to look at it on an individual basis and see where we can best assist the communities.
The communities themselves are well prepared to deal with a lot of emergencies that come their way. I think 29 of the communities have emergency plans put in place, so as far as the financial part of it, again, we’ll have to look at it on a case-by-case basis and see – going back to the Disaster Mitigation Program – how that rolls out as there may be opportunity for some funding there.
At this time I have no further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
