Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my Member's statement, and in speaking with firefighters in Yellowknife, there is a huge cost to firefighter training in the Northwest Territories because we don't have agreements with certification bodies that exist in larger jurisdictions. Now, Nunavut, a couple of years ago, entered into one of these agreements. Their costs have gone from, you know, $700 a training session to $75. This is something our fire marshal can do. Can the Minister commit to lowering the cost of fire training -- of training for firefighters in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm unaware of any costs for the training that they had in Nunavut; however, conveniently, I was actually just speaking to the department this morning regarding fire training and our ability to try to make some changes in it and training that will better serve the communities in the Northwest Territories, larger centres. Conveniently enough, I've been involved in the fire service for 30 years in the territories and larger centres have the benefit of having resources for training and the ability to do more training; however, it comes down to a level of service throughout the communities and we need to look at different ways of doing things for the communities. I've gone through three or four different cycles of training challenges and changes, and I think there's a time now to change and benefit the communities throughout the territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I knew this was the right Minister to talk to, not only because it's his portfolio but it's his passion. So after 30 years, I'm glad he's going to bring that energy to the role, Mr. Speaker. What fire service training is currently offered through the Office of the Fire Marshal? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, right now there isn't a whole bunch of offered training; however, what it is is we do support regional centres to do training and they invite other communities, if they want, and the Department of MACA reimburses the training that they provide. However, some of the smaller communities were offered defensive level training in a program that was done quite some time ago. The department is currently looking at a new way of offering this training to the community. So there is different standards based on the level of service to the community. So there is work to get the training out there for the communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the Minister know what the mandatory cost for -- or the mandatory certification for firefighters, how much it costs, and who covers that cost? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, right now a lot of the communities can apply to MACA to get that cost covered. However, again, depending on the level of service, so for an example the city of Yellowknife was raised -- you know, you'll have a base level of service of having an FP1001 it's called, which is a base level training for career firefighters. In a small community, that would be really excessive for them and that's a very expensive cost, so you'd probably end up with something like a defensive level. So depending on the community is what the cost is going to be. It's hard to actually put down a whole -- an actual pinpointed value to take in the training. It's all depending on what they're taking in for the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister work with or make a commitment to follow up with the Yellowknife fire department and work with them to improve access and costs to training? They're the real experts in this area. They brought these concerns to me and they can speak to this far better than I can. So will the Minister commit to working with our local fire chief here in the capital? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am more than willing to work with the Member and definitely, you know, the interested -- I'm interested in working with the Yellowknife fire department also in order to see what their requests or wants are. But at the end of the day, we have 33 communities to look after and we have to do something that covers them all, and sometimes when we do training in a regional centre, it takes a lot of the budget and it takes away from the smaller centres, so we have to be careful with that. So I will look forward to working with the Member and see what we can do there. Thank you.
Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
