Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, once again, it's that time of year to start cranking up our heaters and plugging in our vehicles as the temperatures increasingly drop overnight. Yes, we are all accustomed to winter seasons, but what many of us are unprepared for is ba winter season in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
Keeping homes warm is increasingly becoming a struggle for too many -- far too many Northerners who can't afford the rising costs of heating fuel. And this can only get worse as economic opportunities dry up. An unsurprising consequence of this drop in a standard of living is the sad fact that our communities will see a rise in house fires. Just ask our firefighters what happens when more homeowners resort to leaving multiple space heaters running, open up their ovens, or tap into their neighbour's electricity. Even worse, couple these factors with our deepening housing crisis where many housing units are over capacity, and the result is a recipe for disaster.
This exponential increase in risk puts enormous pressure on fire departments across the North. But, unfortunately, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs has been more interested in downloading the responsibility of services onto communities without ensuring that these communities have the resources to train and certify firefighters. The consequences are major gaps in training and qualifications for firefighters, exacerbated by the fact that without agreements with training institutions and certifying bodies, training firefighters is far more expensive.
How can communities train the firefighters they need to protect their communities when it costs thousands of dollars to do so without the legislation, certifying bodies, or agreements in place? The Fire Prevention Act makes it clear that the Office of the Fire Marshal is responsible for programs relating to fire and para-medicine, including training, but it's not clear how much of these funds go directly into the delivery of training programs. This is unacceptable to our fire departments in every community in the Northwest Territories who regularly make clear they do not have the resources to train, equip, or ensure a minimum level of qualification for their first responders.
Lutsulke, for example, has gone years without a fire truck and when they had a severe fire, the truck pulled up and the water pressure on the hose failed. Mr. Speaker, I know the Minister has experience with this file and I know he cares about this, and I know he'll do the right thing when I put questions to him about properly funding our fire departments.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Members' statements. Member from Frame Lake.
