Mr. Speaker, the Office of the Fire Marshal, where dreams go to die. Whether you or the GNWT's building a health centre for your patients in Norman Wells or you're the North Slave Correctional Centre who built a beautiful healing room that the fire marshal won't let them use or you're an Indigenous government trying to open a remote lodge in your newly established protected area or you're simply a private business trying to sink your hard-capital to retrofit a building up to code, the Office of the Fire Marshall is sure to make your life difficult, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are the only jurisdiction in Canada without a Building Standards Act. And after decades of MACA reviewing the Fire Prevention Act, I'm not confident we're going to end up with a Building Standards Act. But in the interim, Mr. Speaker, there are some things we can do to improve the Office of the Fire Marshal. I understand that code compliance has to be arm's length. We need experts to make decisions on the National Building Code. They need discretion when to apply the code to more stringent standards or to make exceptions for the old decrepitating infrastructure we have in the North and issue occupancy permits. But that discretion does not mean the process has to be unpredictable and lack transparency.

Mr. Speaker, there are things the Minister can do to tomorrow to make sure the GNWT stops taking itself to court. Firstly, Mr. Speaker, customer service standards for the Office of the Fire Marshal to make sure they respond to their emails on a timely manner.

Mr. Speaker, previously, the Office of the Fire Marshal had a number of bulletins on the different interpretations of the National Building Code that they will take. Not only did they stop issuing bulletins, they removed all the old bulletins. Jurisdictions across Canada tell you the different interpretations they will take of the National Building Code. Many have annotated National Building Codes which are great and excited to have documents to work with that provide everyone in the process predictability.

Mr. Speaker, for years people have been asking for an appeal mechanism to an independent tribunal. Right now, those Ministers, if made at a lower level, go to the Office of the Fire Marshal or the Minister. We need an independent panel of experts to review National Building Code things.

Mr. Speaker, the Office of the Fire Marshal, for whatever reason, does not like to work in draft construction documents, yet this is good enough for the architects, the contractors, the gas inspectors, the building inspectors, who are all involved in project management from the start. But it's too much to ask the Office of the Fire Marshal to look at a fire evacuation plan until the building is already standing.

Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister about what we can do to get the Office of the Fire Marshal to serve the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.