The committee noted that the department is in the process of instituting a new fire protection process for communities and does not appear to be continuing the previous system of building fire breaks in high-risk communities. The committee would like to understand why the department appears to now be abandoning the fire breaks plan after promoting it vigorously for numerous years.

Honourable Stephen Kakfwi -- "This year about $750,000 in funding has been provided to projects in 11 communities.... As well, several communities have begun developing long-term plans to incorporate habitat and forest management objectives into community protection needs."

(Northwest Territories Hansard, October 3,1996, p.832)

The committee would like to know if the fire breaks program is continuing and if so, how many communities were able to complete their community's firebreak. The committee notes that the protection plan for the department appears to have changed from the building of fire breaks to the development of community protection plans. A sudden shift of strategy means that the valuable work from the past may be abandoned while the department has to develop a new strategy involving more expenditures. Continuity of plans and strategies within the department is important to ensure territory-wide coverage of fire protection for communities in the NWT.

The committee is also disappointed to see that despite this new process to develop some sort of community protection plan, as of yet, no community appears to have one. The committee feels strongly that communities may not be safe without these plans in place.

After questioning by the committee, the department agreed to a thorough review of forest management issues. The committee encourages the department to complete this review in a timely manner and looks forward to reviewing the results.