Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So two departments, Municipal and Community Affairs and ECC, are doing an after-action review. So that's part one. We are reaching out to the municipalities, working to see that there. We're also setting up training events. We're looking if there are the emergency plan, how it worked, where we can improve on it, set up training, tabletop exercises so people are better prepared on that. We're also working with ECC to come in and work with the communities on their fire smarting or their fire smart to the communities. But also when the Member talks about, you know, fire...

Yes, it's more of a Municipal and Community Affairs question. So we do have a hosting grant available to communities. We have identified communities as evacuation centres, like Fort Simpson was for Kakisa and Jean Marie. The reason we identify these evacuation centres is so that we don't burden the community on there, so. But we've noticed that some of the communities have been working or getting evacuees into the communities. So we did establish a hosting grant, and the communities can apply for the hosting grants on that there. In regards to if he's looking for equipment and that, we are...

Yes, that's correct. The second thing is who to contact, reach out to the department, or give it to yourself as the MLA, reach out to them and then work with us. I can tell you the Member has given me a number of emails, and we've been working on those situations. So please get us those emails because we need to get fix this because it was unfortunate that situation happened. We have to rely on our host province, and that's what they did. Some of them had Red Cross to help them there, and they were working on it. So, again, if we missed those things and we're going to miss some of those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, section 4 of the DFAA deals with the public sector expense eligibility. Section 4(1)(1) is in reference to provincial territorial eligible costs. If a province or a territory provides temporary relocation, shelter, etcetera to residents. The GNWT did provide evacuation support, including transportation, accommodation, and food. And so the GNWT will be making a claim for its cost for those eligible expenses under the DFAA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So right now we're adding an additional one right now. But as we see fit, if there's more if the damages we're seeing, we need more Pathfinders and then we will look into that. Right now, we feel we have enough Pathfinders right now, whether it's here in the city or in Hay River, part of that team. But we are adding an additional one right now to help with that Enterprise file. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fire was more than 30 kilometers away from Enterprise for days before it impacted the community. The fire was closer to Kakisa before this extreme wind event pushed it towards the community of Enterprise, which was further than predicted by models. Aircraft and crews actioned this fire consistently as conditions allowed throughout their response beginning with initial attack on August 2nd. The fire impacted on Enterprise was not a result of crews being spread out, but it was a result of extreme wind event and environmental conditions. This caused the...

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...