Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today would be for the MACA Minister but first I'd like to acknowledge that the Premier mentioned the Canadian Red Cross and their presence here in the Northwest Territories. Perhaps we should look at utilizing their services to help the small communities because we got dire emergencies on the first responders in our communities as we're left to our own devices.
I'd like to talk about the volunteer fire departments which are it's a voluntary service within our communities. There was an incident about a week ago in our community, about 4 o'clock in the morning. There was a shack a fire call to a shack and there was only one person from the fire department that showed up. And it was a good thing that that one person did show up and knew how to drive the truck because he saved a life.
So you know, we got challenges keeping volunteers all the time. There's no resources going to it. Most times nowadays, you know, you have to pay somebody to do very many things. And we haven't been given any further resources from the department to keep and maintain volunteer firefighters, training exercises, ongoing things.
I'm wondering if the Minister can advise if there are any plans to deal with the volunteer fire departments in the small communities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister responsible for MACA.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, the Member talks about a very difficult and challenging situation in the communities. The department has regional assistant fire marshals out there that work with the communities. The communities just need to reach out to them. We can offer the training through the school of community government. The Member talks about the lack of volunteers. That's one of the challenges that we see a lot of, but we are working with the communities. So if the communities in his riding are looking for support, we are more than willing to bring in our staff to come in and help. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. And mahsi to the Minister for that reply. I think we're still facing challenges. Like I was saying before, like it's always like a lip service that we receive. They keep saying well, we got, you know, fire Office of the Fire Marshal or somebody that's working with our communities; apparently they're not, because I'm bringing out these issues. And it's for the other communities, the small communities which we're having challenges. And like I'm saying, we could probably utilize the Red Cross services, or the Canadian Red Cross, in our communities. The government just has to pay for that service so they can come in and help us bolster our volunteer fire departments. So I'm wondering if the Minister is open to that idea? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I represent six small communities as well. I know my communities have reached out to the assistant fire marshal's office. The office is more than willing to come into the communities and work with them. We're also school of community government, we've had the ability to go into the community and work with the community specifically. So if we have volunteers that need first aid training, if they need fire training, we're more than willing to go into those communities to work with them. So the community, we can have the staff there. So that's what we're willing to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's more lip service that I'm hearing, because I'm standing here, you know, on behalf of all the small communities saying we need something done to help our communities. Send your staff in. Now I'm hearing the school of government, you know, community government now, and then the fire marshal. Yet they're still sitting there where I'm asking on behalf of all the small communities to get your staff out there and get helping our communities. Can the Minister commit to doing that? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I need to clarify. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, that's their regional job, is to get into the communities. The communities, as soon as they ask, we get in there. The school of government's willing to come in and offer courses there. The school has a calendar of events but if there's specifically one area that they need, we work with the community to do that. So we're more than willing to do that. The staff go in there. They are working with the communities. As soon as the communities ask, the regional offices work with them to get staff in there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. More lip service. That's what I'm getting from this department nothing but lip service. I'm asking on behalf of the communities, the small communities, get your staff out there to communicate with the communities; don't wait for them. We're crying for help out there. And I'd probably be going back to the Minister again; can the Minister commit to getting his staff to reaching out to the small communities? Mahsi.
I guess the Member's not listening. I guess I'm not speaking properly here so I'm going to try this one more time. The staff reach out to the communities. The communities reach out to the staff. We work on a plan. So if the Member wishes us to reach out to his community, we will reach out to his communities again. But we work with them. That's our process. We work with them. When they ask us to get in there to help, we do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
