Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
WHEREAS local authorities are currently responsible for the development and implementation of their emergency plans;
AND WHEREAS the local emergency plan is the first line of defense to keep residents of the Northwest Territories safe and informed when responding to natural disasters or other similar emergencies;
AND WHEREAS Municipal and Community Affairs currently provides guidance to local authorities to create emergency plans but there is no requirement for the Minister to fund, draft, or assess these plans;
AND WHEREAS, the current form of community emergency plans throughout municipal and community governments can fairly be described as standalone orphan plans;
AND WHEREAS, without general uniformity of emergency plans, there is little consistency with respect to community emergency plan details, themes and overlapping partnership agreements, which would help ensure the plans coordinate together in cases of regional needs, and consistent and contiguous to the Northwest Territories emergency management plans;
AND WHEREAS there is currently no obligation for public transparency of these community emergency plans;
AND WHEREAS residents in Northwest Territories communities were threatened as they fled for safety in recent flooding and wildfire events and, in some cases, felt a sense of lack of coordination and disconnect between leadership and partners;
AND WHEREAS the Minister has the authority under the Act to direct a review and analyze these plans, however, the Department does not fund these plans directly, which is then left up to municipal and community government to resolve this challenge in the absence of much needed resources, expertise, and funding;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, that the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs direct the emergency management organization to draft all emergency plans for every Northwest Territories community over the next two years to ensure all plans are reasonably and consistently done;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs provide financial support to all applicable governments, to allow them to fine-tune and complete their specific community emergency plan reflective of their specific community needs, inventorying of assets and assessment of their partners and supports;
AND FURTHERMORE, once a community plan is prepared, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs posts each community emergency plan on the Municipal and Community Affairs website to ensure they are publicly accessible for transparency;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs acquire the resources for each community to ensure all plans are reviewed and practiced from time to time, based on reasonable industry standards, which will demonstrate leadership and confidence in these safety plans for all Northwest Territories residents;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this motion in 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. To the motion. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to kick off debate as I did earlier, but I probably won't spend as much time going through this one. This motion speaks for itself.
Communities, whether you live in a large one or a small one, are all starved for resources. We talked about the municipal funding gap at length. And this is just one more thing piled on to them that they need to respond to.
Mr. Speaker, the challenge is, of course, we know, first of all, it's money, so the resource of money is not there for these communities. Then you have the skills and abilities to do this. I mean, these are specialized expertise. This motion really does talk to the issue of MACA coordinating them for all communities, and then looking at them from a regional point of view and help -- and then tieing them together so they're consistent and then giving them, the communities, all communities, in a draft form, so then they can say, hey, my needs in Trout Lake are way different than my needs in Colville Lake, or my needs in Inuvik are much different than Yellowknife, or my needs are different in Smith than they are in Norman Wells. So, like, every community is very different but the concept and the expertise about asking the important questions, such as make sure you have this, make sure you know where these are, considering this an enormous undertaking. But it's the financial and expertise that, you know, when it comes to the money and know-how to build these things and give them to communities. We have to set these communities up for success. And that's the critical part about this, is leading and coordinating these initiatives and then giving them to the individual communities and say hey, this is important to me, these are our key resources, these are our partners, we agree with this. If they don't want the draft plan, Mr. Speaker, I wouldn't stand in the way of a community that says we don't want the draft plan. I mean if MACA -- but the thing is they go it alone then, and I don't want to see that. I want them to work in partnership. This is about collaboration and leadership. And it takes leadership from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to help support and initiate these processes so they're ready, so they're done in a timely way, so we're not waiting too long. I mean, the complaints about our plans there, why are they different, why are they missing things. I mean, this would help resolve some of those issues and resolve confidence in our northern concerns, which is is my region, is my community ready? If it is ready, what does ready mean and what does ready look like? What does is it sound like? How does it trigger? What triggers this? How do we respond? So that's the kind of concept here.
I should stress it's not intended to force this on anybody and that's not the intent of this motion. So if anyone feels that their community, this would force it, this is not. It's meant about working in collaboration. And the bottom line is is it's about MACA picking up the tab, which really it belongs to, rather than on the individual citizens on that. So whether you live -- I mean, where do you get extra money when you live in Fort Providence? It's not sitting around there. That community government is struggling to keep water moving in those streets and, you know, doing the important things that communities do. There used to be an old saying dogs, ditches, and dumps. That's what communities should be focusing on. You know, the infrastructure of towns. But as times move on, processes become heavier and heavier, they give them more and more to do, and MACA says this is important, you must have these things. Well, when you say these things are important, they must be done, they must be funded too.
So, Mr. Speaker, that's to start off discussion. I look forward to the insights and ideas and suggestions my community members have. I'm open to them. And I certainly think that they would be help in any form to help get this motion through with the intent of this is about supporting communities, which ultimately is supporting people and making sure we're safe.
And lastly, Mr. Speaker, of course I'll be asking for a recorded vote so I may as well put that -- let the public know now. Cheers.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. To the motion. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I support this motion. On May 5th, 2022, the community -- or the hamlet of Fort Resolution was taken over by MACA and since March of this year, I've been asking where's the fire plan and where things are at and also in regards to the fire plan for Dettah, N'dilo, and Lutselk'e. And with this whole year, you know, I thought about it and thinking back of 2023 and the fire season that we went through, and we want to go back and learn from that. But for me when I stand on the floor of this House here and I brought up this issue about the fire plan, it's really tough because we're under third party management in Fort Resolution. And it's really tough because, you know, the SAO is -- I've been talking to that office when I got there trying to say, okay, what are we going to do about this. I get calls from the chief, I get calls from the Metis leaders saying okay, well, we're concerned about the fire and the upcoming fire season in 2024.
So, you know, most definitely, you know, we do need help. I know in Lutselk'e, Dettah, and N'dilo, you know, they took it upon themselves to come up with some kind of a plan to fireguard the community so that we don't have another situation we found ourselves in last year. So this idea of putting this together costs money and small communities -- untaxed-based community such as Dettah, N'dilo, and Lutselk'e, it's very tough. We already have limited dollars. Our CPI dollars that we get are earmarked for other projects in the community. And I'm getting tired to hear that well, just use your CPI dollars.
Well, you know, Mr. Speaker, in Kakisa and Enterprise, my heart goes out to that community because they found themselves in a very awkward position last year and the fire just took off, and especially in Enterprise where, you know, a lot of residents there that don't have insurance or anything is that they want to leave the Northwest Territories because, you know, had they got on that fire earlier, we wouldn't be in that situation and we would have residents in Enterprise with homes. But now they don't have insurance and that makes -- my heart goes out to them. In fact, my heart says that the Minister of housing and MACA should step up and try to deal with this issue so that, you know, we can look at houses for the members of that riding.
Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day is that we need a plan, especially a communication plan. When you hear the mayor of Fort Providence driving down the road to Kakisa to alert them about the upcoming fire in that area and we had no phone, and they were caught off guard. And so that's why we need to have a very good plan. And this motion that we have in front of us is just a way to trying to come together to come up with a plan that's going to be good for my four communities and to all the communities in the Northwest Territories. But the thing is that the communities don't have the money as well. So, Mr. Speaker, because of that I am supporting this motion. Thank you. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Member for Frame Lake.
