Shane Thompson

That would be Municipal and Community Affairs. But, yes, so we've had assessors come into Behchoko. We've had assessors or we still have assessors in Enterprise. And then we would then be once we've done Enterprise, we would go on to Paradise Gardens that were impacted, those homes there, and then also Patterson. So we do have the assessors in there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can assure this House that the wildfire that impacted the community of Enterprise received initial attack and was actioned consistently prior to the disaster of August 13th. The fire was initially identified on August 2nd and an initial attack within two hours. I repeat, two hours.

Within two hours, that grew the fire grew from three hectares to 120 hectares with extreme weather conditions that include very strong winds. The fire was actioned by crews and/or aircraft as conditions allowed from the time it was discovered but the extreme fire conditions and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is probably going to be a little bit of a longer answer, and I apologize to the House, but we need to get the information out there.

The GNWT used the territorial state of emergency. The decision was based on a combination of multiple factors and not one factor. They included starting in May, the NWT had already experienced multiple community evacuations. In one week alone, just before Yellowknife evacuation orders had been issued, Enterprise, Fort Smith, Hay River, Jean Marie, K'atlodeeche First Nation had also learned been evacuated and we've also...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, MACA's experience is that many Indigenous governments work directly with community governments as part of their local EMO. Emergency management works best when it's addressed at the local level and by those who can direct community government staff and have the authority to mobilize community government, its assets, as part of the emergency response. There does need to be more clarity on roles and responsibilities, including relationships between the local EMO and the regional EMO and the territorial EMO, especially given the Emergency Management Act...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was two or three questions in there so I will try to answer which ones they are.

Do we if it's seven years, does it have the impact on wildlife? I'd have to get back to the Member on that. I don't know that detail. I don't get into that detail. I understand the importance of fire and what it does to the environment. It's part of the regrowth. It has happened in the past. It used to be part of it, the way of life. I was actually talking to an advisor, an elder who lives on the land, and we talked about, you know, the importance of fire and what it did...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all disaster experienced to date in the Northwest Territories are eligible for reimbursement under two federal funding programs. The Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement, or DFAA, and Emergency Management Assistance Program, or EMAP. In the event of a large scale natural disasters, the DFAA provides reimbursement to territorial, plus provincial governments for related costs, including evacuations. The GNWT will seek reimbursement for all evacuation related costs which we have incurred. This includes the Evacuation Travel Support Program and direct GNWT...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess first and foremost, each community should have their own emergency management operation plan. They should have it in place. And if they don't, we as the regional our regional staff will be in there working with them. We created five new positions for emergency management. So that we can help work with them. One of the after-action review things is that I'm looking at we need at least another five more positions at the regional level to do the recovery and work with these communities. So that's part of the conversation that we're having.

In regards...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, like I said, we do have a hosting grant that's up to $40,000. We again, that's why we're telling people with evacuation centres there are certain communities that are host friendly and those ones that aren't. We understand that we seen people go into communities, so we provided that. We did our superintendent reached out to Fort Res, worked with them. We also had the food security with ITI working with them to see if we needed to do those things. So I can also tell you that I've reached out to the federal government, Indigenous Service Canada, talked...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. She's probably not going to like answer. Unfortunately, when people have their insurance, that's the program that they have to do and they have to look into it. Unfortunately, I have insurance and I haven't even looked at mine until after what we've been dealing with. So unfortunately, the disaster financial assistance is last resort. If you have insurance, you need to go to your insurance company. And I am sorry to the residents that have higher deductibles or don't have the same supports, it's unfortunate, but that's the insurance companies that you have to deal with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's going to be a little bit of a longwinded answer. There was a whole bunch of information shared there that seemed to be messy. First of all, let's talk about the lineup. Yes, it was long. We understood that. There was planes. They were trying to get our crews in there. But the second day, as people we had people get on the planes that were told to go back home the first day. The second day they got onto the plane. They were able to do that. We had people registering and getting on the planes that way there.

In regards to the question that the Member asked there was...