Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This year’s potential fire season is of great interest to all residents of the NWT. Minister Miltenberger was quoted on February 9th in the Northern Journal that the 2015 forest fire season is likely to pick up where the last, considered worst in the NWT’s history, left off. This is a dire warning, and residents would like our Department of ENR to be prepared, and residents and community should be prepared as well.
In Nahendeh, while we were somewhat spared in 2014, we did have a fire cross a river at Jean Marie River that was very scary. Fortunately, the winds helped and it turned out positive.
Nahendeh region has great stands of mature forests and the residents are expressing great concern about what is to come. The Minister further states, “Unless we get a lot of snow in the rest of winter and then a lot of rain, the drought codes are going to start the year as bad as they ended last summer, which does not bode well for the type of fire season we may encounter.” This in particular reference of what our scientists are calling our third year of drought in the Northwest Territories.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been hosting open houses across our territory over the last two months as an opportunity to learn more about the wildlife fire management in the Northwest Territories and talk about the 2014 wildland fire season. I am pleased that the department undertook these community consultations. It was a great job by the staff who were there and answered questions of concern that the public had.
How are we going to prepare for the 2015 fire season? Well, they should consider and listen to what is being heard from the public. I attended and heard that we should fight fires early. This can save us at a later date. A good case in point is that there was a fire some 50 miles away from Kakisa in early spring that was not actioned, and for good reason based on swamps and risk levels by the Department of ENR. Yet, because the swamps dried up later during mid-summer, the fire later became a real threat. Through the actions of ENR and God willing, the village was saved with little or no damage.
Having initial attack exercises on early fires, no matter where they are, may seem costly at first but the benefits are many. It can used for training and testing aircraft and other equipment.
I’ll have questions for the Minister during question period. Thank you very much.