Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Finance is not considering expanding the scope and amount to the Evacuation Travel Support Program. The Evacuation Travel Support Program was established to provide financial relief to NWT residents who evacuated in a vehicle during the evacuation that occurred as a result of the 2023 wildfires. I recognize that funding through this program alone does not cover all potential costs associated with the evacuation or incurred by residents.

In addition to the Evacuation Travel Support Program, the GNWT offered a number of different supports for...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we take that into account. We have our fire crews are very much Indigenous. We work with them. The fire crews and people we brought back were Indigenous. These people have been in the system for 20, 30 years or 40 years, and we've worked with them. I've had conversations with them. We've had that they talk about it. In the old days where people would use to like, burning was part of the ecology of the landscape. It would then help them regrowth and stuff like that. The problem is if we don't do those things, we get these tinder boxes that are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Adam Blake Yeadon was born on August 30th, 1997, at Fort Nelson BC to Barbara Bertrand and Jack Yeadon. Adam was the fourth of five children.

Adam was raised in Fort Liard where he lived most of his life. He went to Bella Coola for a couple of years with his dad and brother Jackson, but his heart was calling him home and he came back to live with his sister Donna and her husband Norman.

He was dedicated described as a loveable and happy child who grew into a generous young man with drive and enthusiasm. He was always willing and smiling, hardworking, and...

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.