Merci, Monsieur le President. Tough act to follow there.
On the theme of small communities, this past summer our family took a trip to Sambaa Deh Falls Territorial Park, one of the NWT's hidden gems. While we were there, we took the opportunity to visit Jean Marie River on August 11th to see some of the spring flood damage firsthand. I had contacted the Chief ahead of the visit but unfortunately he had some other meetings that took him outside of the community. I was able to briefly meet with the senior administrative officer and drove around the community.
The community administrative offices were damaged by the flooding but repairs were underway. Much of the community's housing is close to the Mackenzie and Jean Marie Rivers and was heavily damaged. At that point in August, little work had been done other than assessing some of the damage. Some other housing owned by the NWT Housing Corporation is a few hundred meters away and was also damaged and remained that way. Some other housing is set back to the west of the airstrip and was not damaged. Two temporary camps were in the process of being set up - One for Elders closer to the rivers and the other to the west of the airstrip for families. Unfortunately, the community water treatment plant was, at that point, still not in operation.
I want to acknowledge the work of the Member for Nahendeh and I also had the opportunity to visit him briefly in Fort Simpson on this same trip. I was also pleased to see that Cabinet listened to the Regular MLAs and modified the disaster assistance policy to allow for advances and also took off some of the caps. Further work is still needed to review our response and assistance overall.
I will have some questions later today for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs on the status of the flood relief work, particularly for the small community of Jean Marie River. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Great Slave.
