Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, every year the residents of Hay River, and in particular the residents of Old Town and West Channel, find themselves at the mercy of Mother Nature and faced with the question of how will all the ice and water caused by spring breakup find its way out to Great Slave Lake without damaging their homes and properties?
It is not easy, Mr. Speaker, to predict what events will unfold and what actions residents should take to protect themselves and their property. Equal uncertainties are faced by town administrators and what actions they should take. Over the past several years the town has taken a number of steps to guard against flooding, at a considerable expense to the town, I might add. However, Mother Nature is, as I have stated, unpredictable and the power of the water and the ice tends to take its own course and make up its own mind as to what time of day or night the big push will come.
Mr. Speaker, this past spring the big push happened on April 30th. Unfortunately, the safeguards put in place by the town were not sufficient to protect all properties. On that date, Mr. Speaker, I was in Fort Providence on standing committee business when I received a call that I should come home as my constituents were phoning for me. I made arrangements and arrived home at 1:00 a.m. on May 1st and was shocked to see the amount of water and ice over roads and covering residents' properties. I was also informed that all residents of West Channel had been evacuated from their homes.
It became very apparent to me, Mr. Speaker, that the residents would be suffering financial losses and would be seeking some sort of compensation. I put a request in to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs to come to Hay River and witness the situation. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Minister Steen and our Premier, Stephen Kakfwi, who came to Hay River and had a look through my riding and Hay River Reserve.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, I hadn't invited them strictly for a site-seeing tour. I had them there knowing that I was going to be approaching them for some sort of funding. All summer I have waited and told my constituents that the Minister was looking at some sort of package and that I was looking forward to some positive outcomes.
On September 9th I received a letter from Minister Steen that none of the claims fit into any of their programs. So they would not be compensating anyone.