Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not too long ago I believe we learned a lot from the province of Alberta when they were faced with forest fires. I’d like to ask the Premier, will the Premier and Cabinet set up a disaster fund for communities that are directly affected by natural disasters such as floods, forest fires and landslides.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe we have an assortment of disaster funds that we can call upon. I think the biggest one is the arrangement we have with the Government of Canada where they have a disaster fund. We do have a Forest Fire Disaster Fund, mainly for harvesters. We do have a Harvester Disaster Fund for hunters and trappers that have acts of God causing them to lose equipment. I believe through MACA we have emergency funding that can be called upon if required.
Many times when we have these funds available to the communities, there are a lot of barriers. I’d like to ask the Premier and Cabinet if they could please not put so much red tape on the communities that they can access this funding.
As a matter of fact, that is the very reason why we have a Reducing Red Tap Initiative that we’re doing through the Refocusing Government Cabinet committee. In most cases, these disaster funds, the only requirement is that they be acts of God or natural disaster. For the Harvester Fund, you have to show that you have actually earned some revenue from hunting and trapping.
Many times communities face flooding. As many may know, communities face a lot of silt, either in their houses or on the roads. I’d like to ask the Premier if it would be possible for the communities to use a lot of that funding to chipseal their roads.
I’ve been listening to these kinds of requests before. For those communities that have gas tax funding, they do have the authority to make those kinds of decisions on whether to chipseal a road or not.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
