Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, today I would like to talk about a concern that I've had over the years with regard to fire protection and fire insurance coverage that is lacking in a lot of the smaller communities, including the communities that I represent: Jean Marie River, Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake and other communities.

I say this because the government here is building infrastructures in the communities such as homes that cost over $100,000 a piece, and we are building new buildings, as well, such as schools, community centres, and two and three-bay garages that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet, the fire protection is lacking in these communities. I say this because in some of my communities there have been fires. For example, in Jean Marie River over the last five years, there were seven fires that took out some homes and three-bay garages. Nahanni Butte band office burned down some time ago. In Trout Lake there were a number of fires, including a fire that took out the chicken coop last year and destroyed the chickens there and their program. The fire protection that is there is not adequate.

One of the ideas I've been trying to push with the department is to put some pumps, the type of pumps that are used in fighting forest fires, with enough hose to reach the furthest house away from the water source. If you have this type of protection there, along with what they have -- chemicals -- I think that would help because some of these communities are too small to warrant fire trucks and they don't have water systems, as well. So this type of protection would certainly help them.

With fire insurance coverage, I think these communities, because they don't have fire protection, are not eligible for fire insurance coverage. So we are building expensive infrastructures in small communities, yet we cannot protect them with fire insurance, and I have a concern about that. So I would just like to express that the government do something about that. Thank you.