Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I have a vague recollection, in fact, that well, I can certainly, firstly, confirm that, yes, a large proportion of the spending on fire suppression has, indeed, happened over the last, say, month, and in particular in the last couple of weeks. I had a number in my head, and I'm just trying to see if I can find where in my notes that was before throwing it out inappropriately. I think I will not do that since I can't seem to find it quickly. I'll turn it back to the Member but, Madam Chair, if I find it, I will I'll share it. It is it has been a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know that some latitude is being given here to try to recognize that we are in a difficult position today. I know that many members of the public are likely watching today and from places all across western Canada at this point. Madam Chair, this I am trying to answer some questions that are not directly on the supplementary appropriation but that are at least related to the costs associated or costs that might be associated with amount. Madam Chair, the very specific details of firefighting efforts are really not something that I think we're in a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair, I think at this point, ECC would be getting, you know, the benefit of this supplementary appropriation that we're proposing here today, and that would be for the fire suppression budget. MACA's responsible for evacuation/emergency costs, and certainly those have now been quite significant. There's quite a lot that does go into that, whether it's the evacuation of flights that have now been opened up, or whether it's the you know, just the coordination efforts that now span many communities. That is something they do budget for. Now, that said, the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, at this point, no, I don't have the breakdown of environment and climate change's budget by region. I just have the again, the fact that they are projecting a total shortfall of $75 million. I anticipate, Madam Chair, that this may be complicated by region in that the fires are not necessarily staying in each region. So, you know, there's fires that are burning across communities. So I guess we'll have to see to what extent certainly, they're burning across and structurally across multiple constituencies. As how much they are sticking to within the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, you might recall there was $35 million as part of the supplementary reserve. That is you know, that will be more than depleted, quite correctly, at this point, that not involving the wildfires but there's, you know, certainly been other events that have occurred. So, yeah, we'll be well out of that.

As for the Fiscal Responsibility Policy, Madam Chair, what we do also have going for us is that it's not only the cash of the costs for expenses that drive the operation surplus from the perspective of its compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Policy...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this $75 million is going to the Department of Environment and Climate Change. They are the lead, and this to supplement their existing budget of roughly $21.8 or so million. So this is to supplement that budget. That's a base budget that they have annually for wildfire suppression. I don't know exactly what proportion of that necessarily flows directly to a community or to community government or to individual contractors, nor can I say at this point whether the shortfall is going to proportionate to that or not. We would we have been doing variances in terms of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, ECC's base budget for fire suppression is around $21.8 million, and our current estimate is that the supplementary estimate we're proposing should get to the end of the fire season, but you'll detect in my language some uncertainty. Our estimates as of right now, which led to the request for $75 million, is based on where we were at already now about ten days ago if I had my date correctly and, of course, things have continued to change significantly. It was actually as of August 22nd; this is where we were at in estimating where we were, which would...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, certainly, I mean, all financial pieces do ultimately go through the Legislative Assembly, whether it's through the supplementary appropriation process, whether it's through the actual budgeting process that does take place annually in terms of understanding where our contribution dollars are going. So certainly those two processes alone, of course, will continue to take place and, you know, beyond that, again, this is where we get into some challenge of the timing where I presume that we'll be getting some of this information perhaps even when this...

In favour.

Yes, please, Madam Chair.