Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you know all the communities in my riding were hardest hit from the wildfires last summer. Deh Cho region residents, like other South Slave communities, fled on a moment's notice as the fires burned out of control towards our communities. Mr. Speaker, K'atlodeeche First Nations was evacuated twice during the summer of 2023 for a total of 61 days. That community lost 18 homes, their band office, and Dene Cultural Institute was burned. Enterprise was completely devastated losing roughly 90 percent of their entire community with only about eight houses left standing. Overall, Enterprise was evacuated for 41 days, and Kakisa was evacuated for 24 days.
Mr. Speaker, on August 13th, Enterprise was hosting a community event. It all seemed well that day. Everything was going good. People were enjoying themselves. And then the wildfire smoke began getting closer. Little did residents know that a vastly expanding fire was barrelling towards them fueled by wind speeds that reached upwards 80 kilometres an hour. That is an extremely fast moving fire that left very little time for people to pack up and evacuate. In fact, by all accounts the evacuation of Enterprise was chaotic and caught everyone, including the mayor, completely off guard.
Mr. Speaker, this is where my constituents feel forgotten because nobody from the GNWT contacted Enterprise residents or leadership to warn of a wildfire heading their way fast. It was only thanks to the chief, April Martel, of K'atlodeeche First Nation, who informed the mayor of Enterprise in an emergency management organization meeting taking place that day. Then to make matters worse, later that night the wildfire took down telecommunication services, taking out internet, cell and land line phone services in several South Slave and Deh Cho communities for days. That left Enterprise, Fort Providence, Kakisa, and Hay River almost completely in the dark in terms of communication for five straight days during a territorial state of emergency.
Mr. Speaker, my constituents are understandably
Member from the Deh Cho, your time is up. Thank you.
Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to my colleagues. Mr. Speaker, my constituents are understandably feeling angry, hurt, and abandoned by our government as a result of the wildfires and its after math. I will have questions for the Minister of ECC later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Member from the Deh Cho. Members' statements. Member from the Mackenzie Delta.
