Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I referred to in my Member’s statement earlier today, I think we all have some concerns after seeing what’s transpiring in northern Alberta right now with regard to forest fires. The situation that occurred in Slave Lake where within such a short

time span a forest fire broke out and destroyed almost the entire community, are there any observations, lessons to be learned for us here in the North on how that whole situation transpired? Is that something that the Minister is going to look at to avoid such a tragedy in our territory?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we’ve observed, of course, is every community’s worst nightmare, where there is a confluence of time and events, and circumstances and conditions of weather and dryness that resulted in significant wind that resulted in a catastrophic event.

For ourselves in the Northwest Territories we have our fire crews in place. While we recognize that it is much drier than normal, we have our contracts with bombers and the rotary wing craft. We have been working long and hard in the communities to do FireSmart programs. We have changed our command and control structures when it comes to dealing with fires and making decisions at the fire site up through the chain of command so that people on the ground can now be able to respond quickly and efficiently with knowledge that they have, and not have to wait for it to bump its way up from Fort Smith or Yellowknife or some other place.

As we prepare for the fire season, we look to the south. Nightly I’ll look to the sky and as I say my goodnight prayers, I’m always praying for rain these days.

Last year the province of British Columbia budgeted $50 million for fire suppression and spent $500 million. What does our government currently have budgeted for fire suppression in the Northwest Territories? What contingency do we have should we end up with a worse fire season than normal?

We recognize the way we have set up the funding with the fire program that we will require supplementary appropriations. It was specifically designed that way so that we could monitor more closely and have the funding spent on an as-required basis. We anticipate we will be coming forward as the fire season proceeds for supplementary appropriations. The question will be for how much.

If I may point out, in B.C. and in Slave Lake what you have is fires very close to communities and large communities. In B.C. most of the money was spent protecting communities that were affected by fire. They had little resources even with the tens of millions, hundreds of millions that were spent to actually fight fires that were not tied to protecting communities. We are going to be doing our best to

protect our communities in the Northwest Territories, doing the preparatory work, and we will spend the resources that we need to, to protect those communities.

What reciprocal agreements do we have in place with other jurisdictions in Canada to provide them with support if our fire season is not making busy our crews and equipment that are on standby? What agreements do we have in place to lend support where it may be required in neighbouring jurisdictions and where they may come to our aid should we require their assistance?

We have a number of agreements. We have the MARS agreement, which is applicable across Canada for mutual aid and reciprocal response. We have the Northwest Compact Agreement covering the western provinces and the northwest States, Canada/U.S. Reciprocal Agreements. We have the NWT-Alberta Border Agreements and agreements with Parks Canada for fires in national parks.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of fires in the Northwest Territories are triggered by lightning. Some others are started by human carelessness. Given the anticipated dry season that we’ll be facing this summer, is the Department of Environment and Natural Resources doing anything to create more public awareness about the dangers of discarding of cigarettes or leaving campfires not completely put out? What is the department doing on the awareness side of the issue?

We have our own ongoing public education program. Every year, as the season progresses and we find out how dry it is and what the risk is, then as the rating gets more extreme, we increase the public awareness.

We work with communities, as well. Many communities have no burning bans around campfires. If it gets bad enough, there may be no campfires. We are already engaged in the process of making people aware, and everybody that’s been outside knows already how dry it is and how low water levels are, and that we are potentially facing a very incendiary fire season. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was careful consideration given to the request. Yellowknife has, in the Northwest Territories, the best services available on the medical front, of nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors, obstetricians, everybody that you could possibly need to have a successful pregnancy, to do the prenatal and postnatal work. Yes, midwifery is nice to have if we can afford it.

I pointed out earlier that every region here outside of the large centres, the Sahtu, Nunakput, Tu Nedhe, Nahendeh, Mackenzie Delta, Monfwi, and Deh Cho, don’t have birthing services at all. So we have committed to a plan and we’re going to get that plan done so that for the next business planning session, that there will be a consideration for the recommendations put forward as a result of that review. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister, I think, for that answer. I appreciate that we have excellent facilities here for birthing, and it’s not so much that we have facilities we should cancel one program because we have another program that allows for a certain kind of birthing. There are also the advantages to be considered of a secondary birthing program, and one of them is financial. I think that certainly midwifery is a cheaper alternative to hospitals. I appreciate also that the Minister talks about areas that don’t have midwifery services or even birthing services. Absolutely, we should be expanding the program, not cancelling, as he’s doing.

I appreciate the fact that we’re doing a review. I’d like to ask the Minister who is going to be involved in this program review and expansion analysis. Thank you.

As the Member encourages us to expand the programs here in Yellowknife, I just want to point out that I

recollect sitting at that witness table and listening to the Member’s deep concern that we were going to overspend our supplementary reserve, and cautioning us and urging us to be fiscally prudent and responsible, which we’re trying to do.

Mr. Speaker, there will be a process. I don’t believe the consultant has been picked yet to do this, but there will be work with the current midwives, the medical community and stakeholders. They’ll be taken across the Northwest Territories to see what’s possible, should the time come when resources are available for us to consider those types of program expansions. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I would encourage the department and the Minister to get as broad representation from users and potential users of this kind of a program as possible.

I’d like to know from the Minister, if they’re going to a contractor to do this review and analysis, would the Minister and the department be open to a non-government organization putting in a proposal to do this review and analysis? Thank you.

There will be an RFP put out and folks can apply for that. That will be an open kind of process, and if they are the ones chosen and meet the requirements, then they’ll get the job. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I would hope that when the Minister and the department evaluate these proposals that they look at the time frame that is being proposed at the time that they do that evaluation.

Can the Minister advise me and the House when we can expect the results of this review and analysis? Thank you.

As I indicated in the previous answer, the intent is over the life of this current fiscal year to get the work done and have it ready so that when the new 17th Legislative

Assembly comes into place and the government is up and running, that they’ll be able to consider the results, findings and recommendations as they look at the 2012-13 business planning process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I note that the Minister has said that full obstetrical hospital services are available, so the loss of the Midwifery Program is not serious here in Yellowknife. This, of course, misses the

point. Midwifery delivers a service that, in fact, ensures the health of young mothers and their babies far beyond surviving the experience.

Our current underfunded service is probably delivering big savings and enjoys enormous client support, but the promise since 2009 hasn’t been carried out. At the very least, a thorough analysis of the program can best be carried out while we have the program and community linkages to include in the analysis. Why must this program be cancelled during that analysis? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.