Mr. Speaker, it isn’t very often we can say that weather forecasters were spot-on with their projections; however, this fire season it seems they got it right.

The fire season started very early. In fact, it may be one of the earliest on record. It seemed like the 2014 fire season just spilled over into 2015. There were several hold-over fires from the 2014 season, fires that burned deep over the winter. By early June the numbers and frequency of fire occurrences were record setting. The effect of extended drought was really evident through the South Slave, Deh Cho and North Slave regions. Fire behaviour on most of the fires was explosive. Fire crews reported having issues finding water sources to run their power pumps.

Large fires began to show up on the landscape in the Deh Cho and South Slave regions. Several communities were impacted, including Trout Lake, Jean Marie River, Fort Simpson, Hay River, Enterprise, Fort Providence and the Hay River corridor.

Large numbers of heavy equipment were hired to help deal with the fire situation. Finding additional wildland fire resources to help stem the tide of these fires became a serious challenge as western Canada and the United States, suffering under the same drought as the Northwest Territories, began to take up any available resources in the country. A National

Critical

Resource

Protocol

was

established to divide available resources according to need, the protection of human life being the

priority. As you are no doubt aware, Saskatchewan was indeed the most affected province in the country, requiring the most help with several communities evacuated. Despite conditions here, the NWT was still able to render some assistance, along with Ontario and the Maritimes.

Fortunately,

as

meteorologists

predicted,

conditions changed from mid- to late-July and we began to get some substantial rain. This, of course, helped firefighters get the upper hand and establish control. In early August the North Slave joined in the fray as a fire near Hearne Lake began to grow beyond the control lines of firefighters and into the Reid Lake area. Cottagers were evacuated and firefighters from other parts of the NWT and Alberta moved in to help the region deal with this fire. Again by mid-August, wetter conditions moved in and curtailed the fire. Priority areas of the fire were brought under control and extinguished.

For those statistical analysts, there were 241 fires in the NWT and 622,000 hectares of land consumed by fires, which is above average. However, things could have been a lot worse. Last year, as you recall, the NWT had 378 fires which consumed

3.4

million

hectares

and

the

Government of the Northwest Territories spent $55 million

on

wildfire

suppression.

To

date,

expenditures for 2015 are close to $32 million. However, we can say, with glad hearts, that no lives were lost and very few values-at-risk were affected, which is, of course, our ultimate goal.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted