Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I'm talking about the floods in my region. Can the Minister of MACA provide me with any resources available for residents in the NWT dealing with floods? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are actually a couple of disaster relief programs that people in all regions can apply for in the Northwest Territories. One is through Municipal and Community Affairs. It's a Disaster Assistance Policy. It more works with things, infrastructure, roads, et cetera, deals with private properties, but it's about primary properties with that one. The other one that we deal with is the harvester disaster compensation program, and that's through ENR, Environment and Natural Resources, and it provides support to NWT harvesters when they suffer loss or damage to their assets, to help them with their harvesting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm glad that our Madam Premier is the Minister of MACA as well because then I can ask her if she can commit to ensuring these resources are advertised and readily available to the people living in the Beaufort Delta right now dealing with the floods that are currently happening.
Absolutely. The GNWT is known for not being the best communicator, but this Assembly is trying to do better, so I will make sure that Municipal and Community Affairs reaches out to the community governments, to the communities, let them know what services are available. I do know that the Minister of ENR has also got regional representatives in the area that can provide information to harvesters, as well.
With this flood this year being the highest, in 2006 I remember we lost a lot of cabins. I think back to when I was a child, I remember waking up in the middle of the night and having to be moved from my bed, out the window, into a boat, because our cabin was flooding. This does happen, but it doesn't happen as often as we have seen it lately, and the water seems to be rising. With climate change causing the changes in the Arctic and the Delta so drastically, more than anywhere else in the country, is the government looking at ways to assist our region to help the harvesters to be able to prevent their cabins and the damages to their properties in the future, if there is money that we can look at as a government to help move them, raise them, all those types of things?
If they do fall within the Disaster Assistance Policy, if they qualify for that, then there would be funds provided for that. I'm not too sure about the harvester disaster compensation program. I'm assuming that they would if there are assets that would be reimbursed. I know that one of the northern communities, Tuktoyaktuk, was actually looking at prevention. Those are a little bit harder to get. The federal government tends to just give money for the disasters when they happen. It is something that we need to keep bringing awareness of to the federal government. Climate change is affecting the North more than any other communities in Canada, and so it's important that we continue to raise that to the federal government, to look for proactive money versus just reactive money.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to add to that, just looking if there's a commitment, we as a government tend to deal after the fact in a lot of circumstances, and we're more so not always focusing on preventative, if we can as a government work to prevent some of our climate change problems. Can I get a commitment that this is something that we will try to do in the life of this government? Thank you.
I can't make a commitment that we will address climate change in this government. This is a longstanding issue. However, it would be inappropriate for any government, any Legislative Assembly, to not try to address climate change as we go forward, from now until the end of time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
