Merci, Monsieur le President. Like most of us in this Chamber, my family and I were the subjects of the mandatory evacuation orders in August and September. I want to extend my personal thanks to all those firefighters, support workers, and other essential service personnel that stayed behind to protect our communities. I also want to thank the Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Yukon governments, the nongovernmental organizations, the volunteers, and businesses that helped support our residents while we were away. I also want to acknowledge that as bad as Yellowknife had it, other communities suffered longer evacuations and Enterprise, K'atlodeeche, and Paradise Gardens are going to need very substantial government assistance with their future.
While it might be easy to criticize evacuations, there is always room for improvement. It was a miracle that 19,000 people were, for the most part, able to leave Yellowknife safely over a threeday period. Clearly there is also a need to work more closely with Indigenous governments for emergency management and evacuations.
Moving forward, there are still two areas that require further attention. Firstly, while I appreciate Cabinet's work during evacuation, the financial supports to date have not been adequate or equitable. The evacuation travel support program is not sufficient as $750 per vehicle does not cover those who voluntarily left on commercial flights, in some cases at great personal expense so as to not stress government charter flights, or those residents that could not access supports upon evacuation to other jurisdictions for a whole variety of reasons. I will continue to fight for more equitable and generous financial support.
Our small businesses also require more support. Many have not fully recovered from COVID when struck with impacts of these evacuations. It is my understanding that evacuations costs are eligible for up to 90 percent reimbursement under the federal guidelines for the disaster financial assistance arrangements. I fail to understand why Cabinet cannot provide more and fair financial support for evacuees and small businesses. Lastly, it is now time to start to formulate the lessons learned exercise for firefighting and emergency management. As I have said before, this needs to be a comprehensive, independent, and third party public review. All available tools and options including the Public Inquiries Act need to be carefully considered with an opportunity for public input. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput.
