Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of MACA. Can the Minister tell us what is the process for the review, updating, and training on emergency response plans for communities; when was the last time this occurred? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Emergency Management Act requires communities to prepare and adopt and maintain emergency plans and programming. MACA did support the communities through these through workshops, exercises during to prepare for these emergency, public alert testing was also conducted, public awareness and information. Starting in 2021, community emergency planning workshops were temporarily suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic started and refocused on updating community emergency plans to increase capacity to respond to the flooding. Due to the emergency response required for the spring 2021 flood season, some communities have deferred progress on their COVID-19 surge plans.
But then going back to the question, I'm just reading off of the notes, but you know, that during the flood season, I did travel over to Fort Simpson, and I did work with the MLA from the riding as well too. These were questions that I was asking how did the community respond, how did they prepare, what does this look like, how could we have further determined what these water levels would look like.
I was soon to discover that, you know, we do have surveys that are done, conducted through ENR, that would be able to determine what this flood season could possibly look like. But the magnitude of the flood this year was nothing that was to be expected. But prior to the flooding in the affected community of Fort Simpson and Fort Resolution that were severely affected, there was EMO training that was provided prior, and there was workshops that were provided as well and also the support from the regional office, from the headquarters office, to support those emergency management plans.
And then it's this is going to be a long answer, but then I also further had to discover that, you know, did the community have the capacity? Did they have the capacity to work with the to work with the individuals? I soon came to discover that the community was under a lot of stress. There was a lot of people that had lost their own personal items, their homes, and that, you know, should we go back to that time? You know, there's always going to be lessons learned through the response as well too. So looking at that, we are going to be working with the communities once the flood season is completed. We are going to be travelling into the affected communities of Fort Simpson, Jean Marie, Fort Good Hope, and Aklavik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a lot to unpack in there so I'm going to have to go back probably and listen to the response again. Without getting into a big debate with the Minister, I would say that this high level of flood and water levels this year was anticipated. So I do not agree with that statement that it was higher than expected.
Moving on, can the Minister tell us what or if anything is being done to get cash into the hands of people now, not in a month or two's time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been working with the flood risk communities. We did provide and but no, we directed them to the financial I don't want to say grants but programming that is available to possibly the flood victims that are there. But to date, we haven't received a lot of requests for that, requests for financial assistance from the communities. We did provide the accommodations for the evacuees. We did provide them with places to stay, with food and shelter. So the request for basic needs, I haven't received that. We are working with the claim to the federal government. We do have navigators on the ground that are identifying what items that each of these flood victims have lost during this time, and we are collecting that information, and we are going to be working with the communities.
And just as a note as well too, we did have MACA and Housing are actually in the community as we speak. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how the Minister can say she has had no requests for money on the ground. Perhaps she needs to friend some people on Facebook, including the mayor of Fort Simpson who has been all over social media asking for money in the hands of people now. So I just find that to be kind of a ridiculous answer.
Moving forward, can the Minister tell us what she is doing to get the federal government to provide more flexibility for the disaster assistance programs? What are you doing to sorry. What is she doing to impress upon her federal counterparts that the Northwest Territories is already behind the 8ball when it comes to our extraordinary circumstances here and we need better assistance from the South, not just the typical that's afforded to the rest of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to go back to the question as well too, that, you know, MACA did provide food hampers to the communities. We did provide the evacuation centres as well too. And we also did provide the navigators that are on the ground that are looking at what may be required for the residents, for the flood victims, what can we further support. And looking for the financial contribution, we have provided it through assistance through looking at home repair for these individuals, looking at the environmental assistance. But right now, the department is concentrated on how do we return these individuals back to their homes and how are we going to further repair those homes.
But going back to the question that the Member had asked, preliminary discussions have taken place between the GNWT and federal officials on the GNWT's needs related to the 2021 flood season and the experience. We need to do a full review of our experience with this summer and the engagement more fully with the federal government when we have this information, and we are currently in the middle of the emergency and our attention is focused on the response and working recovery.
I'm committed to be doing a full review of the actions that we have taken this summer and where we could have done better. That work has already started and will continue as we recover. Community governments and their input will be a key part of this work, finding the related what's related to the federal funding programs will be discussed with them as well too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to the hear the Minister commit to a lessonslearned type exercise. I would ask that actually a third party look into the handling of our flood response and providing an independent analysis of what's happened here.
I'm also glad to hear the Minister bring up the navigators. We all expressed that we would like to see more people in the communities interacting with community members and being interpreters, for lack of a better word, between the GNWT and community members. However, it's my understanding that only two people have been hired, and they're likely out of Yellowknife.
So will the Minister commit to contracting a community member in each affected community to act as a liaison with the assessors? And I would prefer that that person be someone who has construction or building experience. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, there are two people on the ground this week, and that, you know, we call them "pathfinders", but I don't know what they're if we've actually given them the flood response officers or whatever, but to meet the residents and answer the questions. But also MACA is hiring contractors as well to look at preventing further damage to the structures. And one of the examples is removing wet siding and drywall and to decrease the amount of mold that could be evolving from the water damage.
The assessment services also have started this week in Jean Marie and are supported by MACA. And I just wanted to be clear that the assessment that is being done right now, this is a team of people. It's not just one individual. So they do come with the expertise, and it's information that we are going to be relying on as a department and looking at their technical experts as well too and also supporting the construction and the rebuilding of these units that may be required.
And that's and any further information as well. I did provide information to the MLAs as well, and I look forward to providing any additional information as we go forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
