Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week we had a fire in Colville Lake. A man’s house burnt down and he lost everything. There isn’t a fire truck in Colville Lake, per se, and they used the water truck to try to put the fire out there. Just recently I heard that there’s an elderly man in Fort Good Hope who just lost his house to a fire with the inadequacy of a stable, reliable fire department there.
I want to ask the Minister of MACA in his capacity as the Minister, is this something that he could look at with the issue of the whole fire reliability in the fire department that are working in the Sahtu region, to ensure that the hamlets, the communities, do have a stable, reliable fire department so that people could feel somewhat safe in their small communities?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have our assistant fire marshals that are stationed in every region, and part of their duties is to go out to the communities to ensure that they have adequate training. If the community requires training or requests training, then our folks can go in there and assist them with that. They can help them identify the types of equipment that they may need. All the communities are funded so that they are able to purchase equipment if they have a need for it.
Mr. Speaker, I know some of the communities in the Sahtu certainly have their fire equipment and their volunteers in place, and they’re on stand-by, of course; they’re doing other jobs in the community.
I want to ask specifically about two communities, Colville Lake, which I talked to the chief last week as to their need to get some assistance from the department to look at a fire truck in that community because they no longer feel that there’s adequate equipment in Colville Lake.
Now, in Fort Good Hope, according to the CBC reports – I haven’t checked it out myself personally – there seems to be a lack of volunteers, or a stable, reliable volunteer fire service there. This is why the old elder’s house burnt down.
So I want to ask the Minister if he could ask his fire marshals, fire division, to ensure on a quarterly basis or a monthly basis that there are fire department volunteer members set up and ready to go in these communities.
We would like to see a good, strong volunteer fire department in every community, and the key word is “volunteer.” In every community they have to rely on the volunteers. Most communities have a fairly healthy volunteer fire department.
Once they have the volunteers or the volunteers identified, then we can work with the community as far as training goes and help them identify some of the equipment that they may need. So, we would like the communities to take the initiative to get their volunteers out, and then will work with them to ensure that there is some training that’s available to them and they’re also made aware of what types of equipment they may need.
The communities certainly volunteer their time in some of the Sahtu communities. I guess I’m looking at Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake, if the government or the fire division can take the initiative to ask the communities to come in, look at the volunteers, see if the equipment is up to date. You have the volunteers, the training there, would like to come in. Sometimes the government has to take the initiative on these specific essential services for our communities.
I am asking if the Minister can have a discussion with his fire division and say we need to get into these communities and see what is available and how can we assist them so that houses need not be burnt down in the Sahtu anymore.
We would like nothing more than to have all our fire departments trained and adequately equipped to deal with fires so we don’t have situations like we just recently had in Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. However, if we were to come in and say we are running a course here and we want you, you and you to volunteer, then we’re basically dictating to them how their community is run. If they come forward and say we have some volunteers, we are interested in this training, we would love to come into the community to ensure that the community is trained and are aware of what types of equipment they would need. So I think this is an issue that is going to take partnership between communities in the Sahtu and our assistant fire marshal. We will do what we can to ensure that they have all the training that they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are some provisions and some programs within government that come into the communities and offer training programs. Minister, I think that’s what I’m asking if you could offer, take the initiative from the fire department, say we would like to come into Fort Good Hope, come into Colville Lake on one of the perfect opportunity dates. Because in Colville Lake, right now they’re all excited because trapping season is here.
When is the most beneficial time to come into the communities of Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake? We’d like to offer these training initiatives. You let us know and then we can work in partnership. I think that is the route that I am looking for from the leadership from this Minister, to ensure people in the Sahtu that there will be reliable firefighters in Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake so that no more houses can be burnt down in those communities.
Mr. Speaker, that’s something we can work on. We can work with the communities and say that we would like to come in at a certain time, offer some education on fighting fires and potentially a course. So, we will work with the communities and see if we can make that happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
