Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my statement, spring breakup is six months away. So it is important this government has a plan in place with measures to mitigate potential flooding for Hay River. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister of ENR considered establishing a group within his department to take on the responsibility for flood and ice management? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, MACA is leading ENR supporting information. ENR provides Municipal and Community Affairs with support role in flood management. ENR monitors and evaluates water and climate conditions prior to ice breakup every spring to help determine the level of risk of flooding. ENR shares its NWT snow surveys results and spring water level outlook for 2022 with MACA and public for emergency preparedness purposes. During the freshet and flood situation, daily water monitoring bulletins are shared with emergency management organizations and are available to the public via email, the ENR website, and through social media. These bulletins include information on water levels, ice conditions, weather forecasting, and photo and satellite imagery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All that, and we still flooded. Mr. Speaker, what direction, if any, has the Minister provided to his department to start assessing how the department can work both internally and with Indigenous governments, with communities, and with residents, to develop policy and work plans to deal with flood and ice management for Hay River and the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I could control Mother Nature, we wouldn't be flooding, and I thank the Member who keeps on asking these type of questions as we move forward. Municipal and Community Affairs again leads ENR supporting information. The GNWT does not have an ice management program policy related to flooding because ice jam flooding is difficult to predict and cannot be actively managed. Ice jam occurs when ice chunks in the rivers do not melt fast enough and collide with each other. Ice jamming floods can happen any year and are dependent on the way ice breaks up in the river channel. Under the Emergency Measurement Act, community governments are responsible for developing and maintaining emergency plans and programs related to a wide variety of disasters, including floods. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, we can sit here and say that, you know, we can't predict this and we can't predict that. But if we do nothing, then I know we won't be able to predict anything. But we have to make some educated decisions. We have to use, you know, Indigenous knowledge and, you know, if we're going to move ahead in trying to, you know, lessen the impact of the damages caused by flooding.
So, Mr. Speaker, has the Minister initiated any discussions with the Alberta government, or any Hay River Basin management organizations south of the border, to talk about what can be done to alleviate potential water flow during spring to minimize flooding in the community of Hay River? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll wear my ENR hat on this one. So the GNWT and Alberta share information about the Hay River throughout the year, through the GNWT and Alberta Transboundary Water Agreement and its bilateral management committee. The data is used to inform the spring water level outlook that is shared with MACA and the public for emergency preparedness purposes. It is not possible to alleviate water flow on the Hay River as there is no control structure such as dams along it. That said, ENR is working with federal governments and other GNWT departments to create a hazard and risk management plains map in locations that experience ice jamming flooding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And it's important that if we're gathering this information, you know, we're studying, we're developing plans, that we communicate that to the public as well so they know what's going on so they know we're actually doing something because, you know, most people look at it and, you know, they look at Hay River, they say well, what do we have for monitoring? Well, we got a couple of cameras on the river and we have an airplane that flies over us and says yeah, the water's getting higher. And that's about it. And that's people's understanding.
So Mr. Speaker, will the Minister of MACA, or ENR, going forward, commit to a public meeting in Hay River to discuss how his departments will address the practices of assessing, monitoring, and planning for flooding and emergency preparedness in Hay River? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, this is a MACA question. The emergency manager organizations work with all departments, including ENR. The department maintains contact with ENR prior to and throughout the flood season to monitor water levels. Municipal and Community Affairs offers ongoing assistance to assist communities with emergency preparedness including delivery of community emergency planning workshops, delivery of tabletop exercise material so communities can run through a mock scenario to ensure roles and responsibilities are well known before an event, distribution of community emergency planning tools and templates, preparation assistance in community planning. So we work with the municipal governments. We have staff that will go in there and work with them. So, again, if that's what the Member wants and the community wants, we'll make sure staff gets in there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
