Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would not be supporting this motion. I believe that communities such as Aklavik have proven they can develop their own emergency plans. They can respond to emergencies locally by working with the RCMP, local municipal organizations and community organizations. Communities have been developing these plans for years. We don’t need somebody in Yellowknife to tell us how to respond to an emergency.
For myself, communities have the ability to take this on as part of taking on their responsibility to govern and also being able to show that they can manage emergencies just as well as anybody else. If anything, in the case of Aklavik, they didn’t want help. They were able to manage it through their Emergency Measures planning committee that was in place and that they activated again this spring when the water was high. They were ready. They know how to deal with emergencies when they come. They know how to respond to it. We have organizations; we work with the inter-agency organizations in our communities.
If anything, I think that money could be better spent preparing community plans, preparing communities. Give them the resources to do that, rather than
basically having a position here in Yellowknife. With that, I will not be supporting this motion.