Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am going to go back into my role as the honorary Member for the Sahtu with some questions about the Norman Wells fire department for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Last week, we had a conversation about the status of the Normal Wells fire department. My question for the Minister is whether it is operating today. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I actually appreciate being asked the question so I can clarify some of the information. As stated last week, the Norman Wells fire department was not shut down. That was an error on behalf of the media. We have been, before actually, before the Auditor General report, we have been going in and doing assessments of community fire departments. We have done 15 so far, and each one of those have come with recommendations. Norman Wells was identified as the need for more training, and there were some issues regarding the qualifications of the fire people to be able to operate some of the equipment, so we scaled back a bit, but we did not close down the department. Just to clarify that, that it is still operational. They are in need of some training, and we are currently working with them to make sure that training happens.
I will answer to that also. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer. It sounds like there was very poor communication that happened between the Town of Norman Wells, its personnel, and the department, and so on. Are there some lessons learned there?
Yes. Again, there are always lessons learned with anything, when things go good and when things go bad, there are always lessons to be learned. Within that one, again, I have to focus that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is not in charge of all the fire departments. That is a community issue, but we do work with them closely to provide the support, the training, and the services that they need to make sure that they are functioning well. There was a breakdown in communication. We talked with the council.
They are actually going to be on this Monday coming up, March 19, the town administrator, and with Municipal and Community Affairs onside. We will be having an inter-agency meeting in the afternoon, and then we will be having a public meeting in the evening so that people in the community can actually hear and dispel any fears that they may have.
The Office of the Fire Marshall is also going to meet with the fire department on Monday and Tuesday, the 19th and the 20th, to put in some details on the implementation plan and how they are going to get their team up to standards with the training necessary.
It sounds like this issue is well on its way to being resolved. My only remaining concern is that, in the reporting on this issue, the reporter tried the fire line on Friday and got no answer. Does the Minister have any information on whether the fire emergency line is operational?
That is new news to me. I have also concerns if someone is trying to phone a fire line and doesn't get through. I would like to say that the community, the council should be available at all times. We will check into that. I do know there may have been a glitch. They are just in the process of hiring a brand new fire chief, and the new chief is going to start work in early April. That still no excuse, so I will look into it to make sure if people call for support, emergency support, that somebody is going to answer that phone.
