Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this past week was very hectic for the EMO and Fire Department people in Iqaluit. On Friday, there was a plane crash and Sunday there was a major fire at some new construction in town. There were some burn injuries to some of the children as a result of that fire. Mr. Speaker, the fire resulted with the power, phone and cable lines being disrupted. The power was quickly restored in about three hours after the fire and I understand that cable TV was back up yesterday.
However, Mr. Speaker, phone service to most of Happy Valley and all of Tundra Valley and Apex is still not available. Mr. Speaker, as a result, Joamie School in Tundra Valley and Nanook School and Apex were closed yesterday. Because they had no phones, it was felt that it might put the children in jeopardy if phone service was not in place. EMO in Iqaluit have today provided two-way communications for both Nanook and Joamie School and have placed their command bus in Apex for communications with Iqaluit. The command bus was donated by one of the long serving EMO people in Iqaluit, Mr. Bob Hanson. It was outfitted with telecommunications and other necessary equipment by donations from Iqaluit businesses. Mr. Speaker, the command bus is being monitored by the EMO staff and they will continue to have it in place in Apex until phone service is restored. I understand that NorthwesTel has brought in extra resources to deal with this problem and have been working around the clock to have the service restored.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Mike Ferris, the EMO coordinator for the Baffin, and his capable staff are to be congratulated for the work they have done over the past few days. Also, the volunteers at the fire department, staff at NorthwesTel, NTPC, and the cable TV staff. Mr. Speaker, I have not been able to speak to my children since this weekend because of the phone service outage. I would like to take this opportunity to say hi to my wife and kids back home in Iqaluit and say well done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.