Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A quick Google search will tell you that the Fort Good Hope seniors home officially opened in February of this year. And then it didn't open. And then the GNWT said it would open at the end of summer. And then it didn't open.
So my question for the Minister responsible of Municipal and Community Affairs is when is the Fort Good Hope seniors home going to open?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for MACA.
Thank you. I know he probably read in the paper at some point in time I was the Minister of but I'm not the Minister responsible for Housing. That's Minister Chinna.
What I know right now, the Fort Good Hope Housing 9plex is not opened right now. We did open it during the COVID Secretariat. We had 24hour supervision, temporary occupation lined up through the again, with the COVID breakout, to assist the community and isolate the people there.
As for a date, I think the Member will should ask the Minister of Housing for that question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I'll put the Minister on Housing that I on notice that I will ask her when she expects the GNWT to let the GNWT open their building.
My question here is that I regularly see receive complaints that our Office of the Fire Marshal is not operating with the same service that both of our neighboring territories are, that emails go unresponded to, that plan review function takes months, that getting occupancy permits can take months and months with different dates provided. Is the Minister willing to create some sort of a standards for the Office of the Fire Marshal? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As part of the process, we're reviewing the projects to make sure they're looked at and then they're prioritized based on when they were received. So the fire marshall's office has developed a process to advise clients as we're doing that. But most importantly and, man, I can't believe I'm doing this to the Member from Yellowknife North, I'm giving him kind of another 'yes'.
The creation of the service standards for the Office of the Fire Marshall will be considered in review of the fire marshall, and we will be doing that that will be part of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, that's three yeses for the Member.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I never thought I'd be so excited for the Fire Prevention Act, but I'm really looking forward to that piece of legislation.
Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that Nunavut, after creating a Building Standards Act essentially hired a contracting firm to review the plan review function. My understanding is here we have one person who reviews the plans, and if they go on vacation, simply just no plans get reviewed.
I believe a good way to solve that problem would give the fire marshall a budget to have a contractor on hire as a backup for plan review. Is that something the Minister is willing to look into? Thank you.
Just so everybody here realizes it in the House and out there, my understanding of the fire office of the Office of the Fire Marshall has not had any delays or backup backlog in projects under review. However, giving him the fourth 'yes' today, I'm getting I can't believe this is four yeses I think Christmas is done for the Yellowknife North Member. Contracting services, when warranted, is an option for Municipal and Community Affairs to prioritize priorities and workload. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I believe me and the Minister, we're going to get through this. We've had a number of conversations, and I previously asked whether the department was willing to change the guidelines that the Office of the Fire Marshal operates under to review draft documents first. And I want to clarify what I'm asking for here.
I'm not asking for a final occupancy permit or a final signoff on draft documents. That would be very inappropriate. But during building a building, the architects, the engineers, and the contractors all get together, they move around the plans, and there's lots of conversations. Other jurisdictions, the Office of the Fire Marshal has consulting meetings. They also we review the plans. This is something our Office of the Fire Marshal refuses to do, and they will only look at finalized drawings. Then when one of our engineers gets in a fight with the fire marshal, we end up in court.
So what I'm asking is will the Minister change the guidelines to allow the Office of the Fire Marshall to be involved a little earlier and have a consultation session with the draft documents and not just look at finalized documents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, planning review guidelines are available on the MACA website and provides a number of options to resolve potential issues before final drawings are submitted, including presubmission meetings and partial review for specific circumstances. The Office of the Fire Marshal is willing to work with any client with concerns related to specific projects to find a solution with the regulatory framework.
I really hate to do this, but this is his third 'yes' today; the fifth one in two days.
We will look at this idea during the review of the Fire Prevention Act. So I'm looking forward to it. We will look at these things. We're trying to improve things moving forward. And I have to say the fire marshall is doing a good job despite what the Member has said in his speech today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
