Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a follow-up to my Member's statement; I am hoping the Minister heard parts of it. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier in my statement, we had a large fire in my riding last year. We are fortunate there was no damage to any infrastructure in the community or the water plant in Fort McPherson. I would like to ask the Minister: what is ENR's plans for fire prevention in the Mackenzie Delta this year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I apologize for missing the Member's fantastic statement. I hear the Member's point, and I have seen pictures of the fire that they had. Let us hope that we don't have those types of situations again this year. We try to work with the communities in fire smarting their communities.
I believe there was a local FireSmart representative workshop that was held in Yellowknife recently in March. I am not quite sure who the participants were. I understand there were 24 attendees from Communities, Lands, and a few other departments. I will work with the department to find out the outcomes of that workshop, and I would be glad to share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am glad the Minister mentioned the fire smarting. That leads me to my next question: can the Minister commit to fire smarting communities in the Mackenzie Delta this year so that the communities can use their capital funds for other critical infrastructure needs?
I want to be diplomatic, Mr. Speaker, but I am just going to say no. The responsibility of a lot of that work in the community was devolved to the communities a number of years ago. Most communities have done really well with it. There are other programs, I am sure, that they can access to help with some of the work that needs to go on.
Through the Small Community Employment strategy through the Small Community Employment Committee, or Small Community Committee, I think there were dollars that were given to every community in the Northwest Territories. Part of that could be used for programs such as this. The goal of that thing is to put people to work.
The fund that the Minister is talking about is in the neighbourhood of $30,000 per community. There is not very much fire smarting you could do for that amount. Maybe a couple of weeks of work or a month at the most, but Mr. Speaker, I will just leave that there and find another route to that. I will ask the Minister a different question. Are there plans to encourage people to pick mushrooms in my riding where we had a large fire last year, like they did here in Yellowknife? They did a lot of promotion in this area for mushroom pickers. Will that be done in my riding as well?
I am not sure about the plans, but a lot of those folks out there who are in that type of industry, they know where some of the fires were, so there is an opportunity for them to go into the riding. We would hope that members of the constituency would be the first ones to try and go take advantage of the harvest, but I am sure that those who are in that industry, those who pick them, do know where the fires are, and if there is an opportunity, they would go there and pick them.
As far as promoting it, I would have to check with my colleague at ITI to see if there is anything in the works on promoting this type of industry.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the winter, there were a number of people that I spoke to who were thinking of actually going out this summer on their own to pick mushrooms, but the process needs to be explained: how to dry them, how to clean them, and all that. Will the department ensure that someone is there to pick them up, just to make sure that everything is done properly, and maybe a little short course here in the first part of June once the ferry is open? Mr. Speaker, will the department ensure that that is done? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We would be glad to help the community. This is a new industry in the community, and there is some knowledge that needs to be gained. I will work with my colleague at ITI, and we will see if there are any opportunities for us to collaborate in sending somebody into the community and giving a short course as the Member had asked for. I will work with them. We will see if we can get someone in there as quickly as possible to give a course to the community so, that way, they can go harvest the mushrooms in their riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
