Mr. Speaker, after several constituency meetings across my riding of Tu NedheWiilideh, I rise to share that I views and experience with last year's wildfire season. They are still feeling the impacts of the evacuation and have a lot to say about how differently things could have been. I also want to recognize the hard work of many constituents put in to ensure that their friends and neighbours were all taken care of.
I have many people come to me during my constituency meeting with a list of receipts and expenses, hundreds and then thousands of dollars as expenses, and they don't know if they will ever get their money back. With inflation driving up the cost of living, I feel it very important to reimburse my constituents who have stepped up to spend a fortune just so they could get to safety.
I want to point out that we have a Language Act but little to none of the vital communication regarding the wildfire evacuation were available to Indigenous people in their languages. This is an absolute breach of the government's responsibilities. Many of our elders did not know what was going on. There is not how we treat our elders, and this is not how we respect local Indigenous culture.
It was very it is also very difficult to know where our community members were ending up as they flew south. I saw a lot of social media looking for their family and friends worried that they could be missing. How could any of us feel sorry, feel if our mothers and grandfathers were missing in places they may have never been before?
And then there are the supply chain disruptions. Yellowknife is the most important supply hub for food for distribution across the North. The evacuation put the supply chain into chaos. I know my people were not I know my people were not the only ones affected by this situation. We need to plan ahead and prepare better so that our supply chains can withstand major disruption caused by this kind of disaster.
I could go on, but finally, I want to mention that this is the evacuation affected the communication that stayed in place while I know Fort Resolution, YKDFN, and Lutselk'e incurred a lot of cost preparing these communities for the fire. It took on a lot of evacuees, and they haven't seen any compensation. We need to ensure that every community gets the right compensation for the work they did to protect themselves and their neighbours. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Premier at the appropriate time. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from Tu NedheWiilideh. Members' statements. Member from Sahtu.
