Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we continue on into our fire season, I'd like to ask the Minister of MACA some questions about our emergency management legislation, specifically the regulations. In other jurisdictions, command control and coordination systems are present in regulations. They require local authorities to establish EMOs that all use the same system so there's a consistent approach across the board, and typically, it's the instant command system. Can the Minister tell me what regulations are in place under the Act to ensure consistent approaches to emergency planning and operations in all of our communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, with the Act and the regulations, we don't have detail to that level; however, I am looking forward after the afteraction review is complete to reviewing all these documents to see what changes need to or may need to be changed. Currently, MACA does offer the incident command system training, the ICS100, to all community levels, but we do not mandate it at that time. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what work is already underway to review the regulations, or absence of regulations I suppose, as we currently have them? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I'm aware of is nothing has been fully done or looked at yet until the afteraction review is complete that we're currently doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given that we don't know exactly what's going to come out of the afteraction review but, presumably, there's going to be something around here. Will the Minister commit to implementing regulations that ensure that ICS is followed in all communities and that communities have to establish EMOs that use this system so we can ensure we're using the right system that works for us? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ICS program is a nationally and internationally recognized program. It's a common one that's used for these types of incidents. I'm interested in looking at this and seeing what we can do to develop it; however, I don't know what our grounds are on fully dictating to the communities what their EMO structures may look like. But at the end of the day, the department does work with the communities to establish these guidelines and assist them in developing them, which also includes recommending the type of training and offering some free training to the communities so that they essentially will fall in line. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we're on the same page, but I do hope that the Minister will look to mandating best practices for EMOs in the Northwest Territories. Can he ensure the House that he will do that and provide support for those best practices through training and planning support? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we pretty much already do a lot of that stuff. We do offer the communities support with the development of the emergency plans and also provide the training. So yes, I will consider what the Member's requesting. Thank you.
