Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too want to stay focused on the four priorities that we have going for us in this government.
Can the Minister of Environment and Climate Change confirm how many fire towers are currently in use in the NWT and explain how they are operated? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Deh Cho. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for the question.
Currently, we have 11 fire towers across the Northwest Territories. Nine of those are camera-based towers. One of the towers is -- two of the towers are located in the Nahendeh riding, one in Fort Liard, and one in Somba K'e. The Fort Liard tower is person operated as well as the one in Somba K'e. It is a unique situation. It also has cameras attached to it primarily for this season in that the person that holds that position was on leave for the 2024 season. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recognizing the local employment opportunities for the hamlet of Enterprise, can the Minister confirm the number of people the Enterprise fire tower employs throughout the year.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the tower in Enterprise was a manned tower which recently the incumbent in the position resigned within the last couple of seasons. Since that time, cameras have been placed on the tower in Enterprise, and the position has been transitioned into Hay River and turned into a monitoring role to assist with the monitoring of the many camera sites across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thanks to the Minister for that answer. Can the Minister commit to creating local fire tower jobs for the upcoming wildfire season? That's we're talking about next year. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. As we look at our current array of inventory towers across the Northwest Territories, many of this infrastructure was inherited from the federal government and much of the infrastructure currently doesn't meet the standards to be in service. So we've looked at many opportunities to use technology across the NWT as part of a larger plan and part of the plan is associated with the funding dollars that were provided from the federal government. So part of this plan involves putting towers in and around communities and areas of high value to get the most opportune return on those towers. And part of that work will be as the plan moves forward looking at the opportunity to create more monitoring positions because one person can only monitor so many sites at a time so as that program advances, there will be other potential opportunities on the horizon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary, Member from the Deh Cho.
