Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change who also conveniently serves as the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Later today, I'll table a request for proposal for a Northwest Territories 2023 Wildfire Response Review. It appears to be a standard afterincident review, but I just want to get it on the public record that this is not the comprehensive, independent review of fire and emergency management that we've talked about in this House. So can the Minister confirm that there will be that there will be a comprehensive and independent review of fire and emergency management beyond this request for proposal? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you. That's kind of both portfolios. So we will be both both departments will be doing an afteraction review of what the situation is. With ECC, we deal with individual situations that are impacting communities. So there will be I call it a number of chapters that we're having impacted communities that were with the wildfire. So we'll be doing that. And then we will do an overall review of the impact of the fire season itself.
Now, in regards to Municipal and Community Affairs, it's going to be an independent report. We will be going out to the public. We will be going out, and we will be getting an independent contractor to be doing this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I'm a bit alarmed at what I'm hearing. It sounds like there's going to be contracted socalled independent reviews. That's not what we've been talking about here. So there are a number of options, though, for an independent review of fire and emergency management. These include could include a public inquiry with a very formal legal process, a joint special committee with Regular MLAs, Cabinet, and perhaps others involved, or an independent group or task force with an agreed upon terms of reference that could include input from Regular MLAs and maybe even the Council of Leaders. Probably should include the Council of Leaders. So can the Minister tell us what options Cabinet is considering for this independent review? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had conversation with the Member about this very topic. So Department of ECC is going to be doing what we consider our part of the afteraction review. Each situation and then an overall. Then Municipal and Community Affairs was going to be doing an independent, getting a person to go out there, and it's going to include general public, Council of Leaders, Regular MLAs, Cabinet Members, whoever wishes to talk about that. However, I have had conversations with this House here and talked about the opportunity and I think the Member talked about the special committee, which would be Cabinet and Regular Members or AOC. So it would be a team, a special committee. So it would be like three and two that would meet together, come up with the terms of reference, to look at this. So that was what I'm looking for and recommending in the next Assembly to my whoever gets this portfolio, or the MACA portfolio, to do that, work with the committee to come up and when I say committee, AOC, or what it will be called next Assembly, to work with them to come up with the terms of reference of how we're going to do it within the timeframe of six months. We don't want to interfere with the other work that ECC's doing and Municipal and Community Affairs is going to do. I think it can be worked together, and it could be part of a good solution. But, again, I think we want we don't want to, I guess, handcuff that special committee to do the work that they need to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I think it's very important that careful consideration be given to who and how this independent review of fire and emergency management should be conducted. I also realize that this is all very fresh and some of it's still ongoing, but this Assembly and government are coming to the end of its life. I don't want decisions made by this Cabinet alone or even during an election. So can the Minister tell us how and when decisions are going to be made about who and how this independent review of fire and emergency management will be carried out? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I guess I didn't make myself clear, and I apologize to the House and the public out there. It's going to be my recommendation to the next Assembly I repeat the next Assembly, not this Assembly here. We only got two weeks left. So there is no way we could do justice to the work that needs to be done. So what we're saying is that we're making the recommendation to the next government, whether Cabinet and AOC, to look at this, develop a terms of reference, develop a special committee to do the work. It can't be done, and we don't want to shortchange the work that needs to be done. We need to be respectful of it. It's a long season. And to get the information correct and to get everybody's viewpoints on how we can improve the things we were able to do. I agree with the Member. Work has to be done. But it's not going to be done by this Cabinet. It's not going to be done by AOC or SCEDE, this Assembly. It's got to be done for the next Assembly. And I agree with the Member. But as I said, I will put it in my transition binder this work needs to be done. And whoever gets reelected, one of the priorities that they need to stress is that work needs to be done first and foremost so we can get moving forward because we're going to have another bad season next year, in my opinion, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for clarifying that. He's just got it on the record that this Cabinet is not going to be making a decision about this independent review and that it's not going to happen during the election. That's good. It's going to be a decision made by the next Assembly. But I'm certainly grappling with who and how this review should be carried out. Personally, I don't think that MLAs, whether Regular MLAs or Cabinet, should probably be leading this review. It needs to be independent third party, so. And they have to have access to the resources and experts to do it properly. So I don't think it should be MLAs. That's what my thinking is. But I'd like to hear from the Minister whether Cabinet has any preferences as to who and how this review should be carried out? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't speak for Cabinet. That's the Premier's role and responsibility. But what I'm saying, my personal, opinion is that the next Assembly, the next Cabinet, the next AOC sits down and has that conversation. If they feel it needs to be led by X, then great. I agree. The next Assembly needs to do that. And it's not going to be a Cabinet or AOC directive. I believe it should be the collective when they meet at the very beginning when they talk about some of the mandates that they need to do, some of the things that they need to task the next Assembly to get done, they need to follow that. I'm not saying what should be or shouldn't be done. I don't think it's my role. I'm just saying it needs to be discussed. The way we do it in the next Assembly, it needs to be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
