Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The summer of 2014 was a record-breaking forest fire season. By the numbers, almost 3 million hectares of boreal forests burned and 384 fires. Suppression involved the efforts of more than 600 firefighters, 10 air

tanker groups, nine incident management teams and dozens of helicopters at a cost of around $55 million.

The greatest number of fires was in the South Slave and had a major impact on the Deh Cho riding. By late June the smoke along Highway No. 3 was so thick that the road had to be closed between Fort Providence and Behchoko, the first of many highway closures this summer. We heard reports of vehicles lined up three to four kilometres, waiting for the chance to drive through. The raging fires by Birch Creek almost had a tornado effect as fires swirled across the road, stretches of pavement and road signs melting, and warnings about air quality.

By mid-July the fires had consumed over 8,400 square kilometres of forest. That’s the size of Calgary and Edmonton combined. Kakisa was evacuated and Fort Providence was surrounded by three big fires, the Birch Creek to the north, the Kakisa fire complex to the south and the bison sanctuary fire to the east, familiar names to people across the North who were listening to their radios this summer.

There was a big fire camp at Kakisa and the Big River gas station in Fort Providence was extremely busy. People were stranded at Fort Providence and residents began to open their homes and businesses to travelers. The Department of Transportation organized convoys to escort drivers through areas of dense smoke and continually posted updates on road conditions on its website and Twitter feed.

By mid to late August, the fires began to subside and things got back to normal. Fires are part of a forest’s natural cycle, but global warming is making our climate hotter and dryer than ever before. This resulted in more extreme forest fire conditions.

I encourage the government to take lessons learned from the NWT’s most dramatic forest fire seasons yet and be prepared for the future. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.