Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. In my Member’s statement on the Nahanni flood disaster, I raised a few concerns, but I will be more specific later on in this session. I just wanted to get some idea about has the department began looking at a post-mortem report on the flood disaster and when can I as the MLA for Nahendeh begin looking at some preliminary report, or at least the report on the response actions and some of the things that happened at Nahanni Butte. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We haven’t started the report yet. Work is still ongoing right now, but once a lot of the work is completed, there will obviously be a report and we’ll be sure that we share that with the Member for Nahendeh. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Just along a similar line, I know that the Disaster Committee is evaluating loss for claims, et cetera. Maybe the Minister can correct me; but is there a deadline for this? Because I know that some of the repairs, some of the damages sometimes it takes three months, six months, maybe even up to a year for damages to show up. Is there a mechanism in our Disaster Relief Policy to address situations like that?
Just for an example, there were some housing repairs done and in my visit last week there was a woman homeowner. She said, well, since they repaired my house, my house shifted a little bit. Is there room in our Disaster Policy to address situations like that? Thank you.
Thank you. All the homeowners’ repairs were done. I think they were finalized and inspected on September 28th. If there are other issues that may have evolved because of the work that was done to repair those homes, then obviously we’d have to go in there and have a look at that, and assess it and see if there is any other way that we’d be able to assist so that the homes get back to their pre-disaster state. Thank you.
Thank you very much. It’s a concern that there’s no firm cut-off date, because these homes are still impacted by the flood, and I don’t believe there should be a cut-off date and hopefully the Minister can raise that with his department.
Also, just getting back to a post-mortem on the community, it was pointed out that I think they have one piece of equipment, a large piece of equipment that surely could have been used, but it was damaged at that time. Can I ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs when they do their post-mortem, also to look at the heavy equipment needs of the community and how we can assist in future floods for any community? Thank you.
I can commit to the Member that we’ll look at all infrastructure and ones that may have been damaged by the flood. If they’re municipal-owned infrastructure, obviously insurance would cover those, but as part of the post-mortem I’ll commit to the Member that we’ll look at all aspects of the equipment in the community, and we’ll go from there and see what could be improved to try and alleviate some of the damage for the next time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The situation in this case with the heavy equipment was that they were all pre-owned vehicles which did not work during the flood. They were looking at all communities should have at least like a track vehicle available to help with their needs.
Aside from that, I’d like to invite the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs to come to Nahanni Butte this fall or this winter to see the community for himself. As well, we may even finally do a gymnasium opening ceremony in the community of Nahanni Butte. Thank you.
Thank you. I look forward to the opportunity of going into Nahanni Butte, the only community in the Northwest Territories I haven’t been to so far. We’ve had many opportunities to try to get there to open the gymnasium and I hope the gymnasium doesn’t flood before we have a chance to open it.
I will commit to the Member and I think we are working on a possible tour of the Nahendeh, and Nahanni Butte would be one of my priority stops. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
