Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day I had the pleasure of reading one of our local publications, and I came across the face of what I like to refer as emergency preparedness. That face was none other the Minister R.C. McLeod. And it was a dapper face, Mr. Speaker, a very, very dapper face.
My questions today are with respect to emergency preparedness or, more importantly, community action plans.
According to the Civil Emergency Measures Act, municipal authorities are responsible for the development and implementation of emergency plans to protect the general public. What role does the Minister and the Department of MACA play to fulfill this prophecy so that we have properly executed community action plans across Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We put on emergency preparedness workshops that some of the communities take part in. To date, I think we had nine communities take part in a two-day workshop that we put on. As a result of that, they have updated their community plan. I believe we have another six workshops that we are planning for 2013-14. As a result, that many more communities will be updating their community emergency plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am excited to hear that. We do have these programs being offered to communities to update their plans, which then leads to my second question.
We do know that our GNWT emergency plan is responsible for providing assistance to local authorities during emergencies when our government is called upon. Can the Minister indicate at this time maybe some numbers of communities that are updated, that have been approved by this government in the last two years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, to date, as of April 2013, we have 17 communities that have updated their plans. We have 14 communities that need updating and sometimes that could be just validating their emergency plans from an exercise. Their plans could be updated and considered validated once they go through an exercise. We still have two communities without emergency plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the numbers that the Minister is giving to us are indeed promising, but yet, having asked this question numerous times in this House, we are just not quite there yet, which then leads to asking my third question.
What does it take to emphasize the importance to the communities to have 100 percent active plans? As the Minister said, 17 out of 33, that is just over 51 percent, are validated. What does the Minister do to propose to get all 33 of these communities with validated plans so that when we are deployed to assist, we indeed can have the resources in place and to make sure that taxpayers’ dollars are spent wisely? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, there are 17 that were updated and 14 that need updating, so that when you look at it, we have 31 of the 33 communities that have updated plans. With the 14, they just need to be considered validated once they do an exercise. The plans could be up to date and we just need to validate them through an exercise.
We continue to work with those communities. A lot of them recognize the importance of having a good emergency plan in place. Once they go through an exercise, they will be considered validated. We are going in the right direction. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again encouraging and, again, I’m not denouncing the Minister’s math. It is as accurate as mine. The question really, at the end of this, is that it sounds like we are very close. It sounds like there are really only two communities that don’t have a plan in place, when math is accurate.
Can the Minister give some assurances to the House and Members here that by the end of fall of 2013, all 33 communities will have a validated emergency action plan? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we will continue to work with those two communities and point out the importance of having an emergency plan in place. The other communities, the 14 that we need to work on, again, they do have emergency committees in those communities. Once we go through the exercise, then their plans will be validated. We will do what we can to stress to them the importance of validating their emergency plans. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
