Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am appointing myself the honorary Member for the Sahtu, and I have the following questions on the fire department in Norman Wells for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. First of all, could she please update this House on the status of the fire department in Norman Wells? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must state that the Member looks very good today. The fire department in Norman Wells is something that I will have to look into. I will get back to her with that answer. It is a municipal issue; it is not a territorial issue. We provide support to the community governments. They are responsible for actually developing and maintaining their fire departments. We provide training and support for fire departments, but we don't actually look after the day-to-day operations of them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am aware that the municipality of Norman Wells runs its own fire department, but clearly there is a problem there that has resulted in a "pause" in the operation of the fire department. My question is really: what kind of assistance can the Minister offer the municipality of Norman Wells to ensure that residents are protected from fire if one were to occur?
We try to support the community governments as best as possible. Some communities do have the funding, actually, tax income, market income, the money that we give to communities, that they can actually put it in their capital plans and have fire departments full-fledged with full-time fire chiefs. Some communities only have part-time fire chiefs. Some communities don't have any; they have volunteer fire departments.
Therefore, we provide a range of training for them. We specialize in our first responder training, actually, so we work with communities that don't have any fire departments to actually give them the skills. There is quite a bit of training that we provide regarding fire training, recognizing that there is a difference within each community on the needs for training and the abilities of the communities.
The other thing that we do is we work within their capital planning on an annual basis. We work closely with them to determine what they see their needs are in the future, again recognizing that it is not our delegation. We work with the communities for them to determine what their needs are. If they decide that they want a fire department and they don't have the resources, we will work within their capital planning on an annual basis to see how much money they would need and how many years that they would need to be able to save for that, and then we will use that to actually apply for federal funding for capital assets.
I am failing to engage the Minister in any sense of urgency on this issue. My understanding is that this community is currently without fire protection. People are obviously worried about what would happen if there was a fire. They are also worried that their insurance may be invalid because there is no operating fire department. Can the Minister assure me that, when she leaves this Chamber, she will go and call the village of Norman Wells and find out how she can assist them to get their fire department back on track?
The questions that were asked of me did not say that I wasn't working. I don't believe that I am failing at addressing the issue. I do know that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is actually working diligently on this issue at this time. We are supporting the community. We are assessing their needs and their situations. That I do know. Our job is to support the communities. When we hear there is an issue, we are in there to see what we can do for support.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister has now provided a more clear and forceful response on this question, but my question still remains: what would happen if there was a fire in Norman Wells? God forbid, but if there was a fire in Norman Wells, how would the community respond if they put their fire department on hold? I know that the Minister is working at arm's length on this, but I would like to hear that there is a plan for response and that it's going to take effect immediately. Thank you.
As stated in my first answer, I don't know the status today. If I had gotten notice, I would have actually looked that up to see what we are doing and where the situation is of today.
I do want to emphasize, though, that community members care about their communities. If I see my neighbour's house burning, I am not going to stand around and sit there and watch and clap. I'm going to do what I can to be able to provide that service. In communities, we have community members who care as well. They will not allow that to happen. They will do whatever the best they can. We have various services. Some communities have trained firefighters who live in communities. We have airports in some communities that will actually respond to that. We will make sure we have an emergency response plan. We will provide the best services that we can to ensure that communities don't burn down. I am not going to let communities go without any fire support services, even if they don't have a fire department.
As stated earlier, many of our communities do not have fire departments and yet those communities have community members of various abilities who come together in times and need and help their community. That's where they live. Those are their parents, their families, their elders. I have trust in our community members and the services that are provided through other resources that we will take care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
