Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks for that. Yeah, I appreciate that the Minister's going to talk to committee but I think it has to be a bigger conversation. The public needs to know what's going on as well and have an opportunity to have a say in this. So is there going to be some kind of public options or evaluation report, or how is the public going to be engaged in this as well? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

Yeah, I agree with the Member, and this is something that we have talked about. But for the detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah okay, no, thanks for that; I appreciate that. As part of that process, are we going to be looking at, you know, response times, use of various languages, and effectiveness/efficiency measures of the system as well? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

Yeah, that's part of our evaluation process. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Okay yeah, thanks; I look forward to getting more information about that.

I just want to turn over the page now to ground ambulance and highway rescue and, you know, in a former life, I was a Yellowknife city councillor, and, you know, I'm not sure if this funding has actually changed from when I was a city councillor. You know, that was back in 2006 if I remember correctly. And then, you know, the city said that they weren't going to provide emergency services on the Ingraham Trail anymore because of I guess the inability to make much progress on this. I hear that COVID has caused some delays here. But when are we finally going to come to grips with ground ambulance, highway rescue, and how this should be properly funded and that, you know, we look after public safety properly? Is there a plan to actually deal with this? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister Gareau.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you. Are there any further questions? Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple quick questions. The Office of the Fire Marshal, I just wanted to just to add my comments on that. There's a budget of $512,000 there for -- to helping that office. But my experience working construction in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and also working with the Housing Corporation and working with the local housing authorities in the communities, the thing is that when I think about the municipality or even the city of Yellowknife, the property lines in this area here, most properties around the city of Yellowknife are about 50 by a hundred. And between the building and the property line, you could probably get away with 1.5 meters from the building to the fence and then the next one over, the same thing. So you would have probably about the 3 meters between building to building. And that's acceptable in a place like Yellowknife because they got a fire department down the road; you got fire hydrants, etcetera.

But my experience in the communities, they don't have fire hydrants. You know, they don't have that in some of the communities I've seen, anyway. And they wouldn't have a fire department that's probably just down the road, and that's volunteer.

So two things that comes to mind is that I know communities are talking about doing residential and commercial block development. I just want to make sure that from my experience, when I was working in the communities of N'dilo and Dettah, we were told by the fire marshal's office that you had to be from 40 feet from the building to building. And, but yet our residential lots are -- in our communities are given out by Chief and councillor are 50 by a hundred. So that doesn't work. So I just want to make sure that is MACA prepared to work with communities that don't have, you know, the fire hydrants and 24-hour manned fire stations? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of MACA.

Yes.

Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Okay, thank you again; good to hear that, really good answer.

Now that I know your answer, also I think it's important, you know, that we have a department here in the Northwest Territories that could take the lead on -- outside larger cities of Yellowknife that could really enforce the, you know, National Building Code, fire code, all the codes that are out there. The thing is that also what I notice is that the GNWT, whenever they undertake a project, they -- through Infrastructure, it's laid out very clear right from when the -- you know, the geotech, the architectural engineers, contractors, construction warranty, and the whole thing, and it's really good because it's laid out closely and they work closely with the fire department. However, prior to -- you know, going back to 1991, it was never like that, and especially in residential homes in the communities where houses are built really close and that kind of thing. So I think that we need to continue to build on the fire marshal office in areas of inspections so that, you know, we don't have any fires down the road where buildings are very close. So I'm happy to see that we got some money in there but I don't know, is that enough? Or are we going to be building on your staff to continue to enforce the -- all the codes out there? Mahsi, Madam Chair.