Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I did have conversations with the Prime Minister. There are things he's looking to do. He's looking to, of course, fast track the employment insurance so please get that word out there. Looking at not making the normal provisions for EI. That will help a lot.

As for the commitment for extra money, he did talk about being able to advance the disaster assistance program, but he also mentioned that there's -- I mean, that he'll look at it. There was no firm commitment because he also talked about ensuring the fairness for all jurisdictions. I kind of tried to debate that a little bit but, again, I understand his position. If he opens it up, then he has every jurisdiction that's facing fires asking for the same amount. And I believe all MLAs have gotten a copy of the things that are covered currently within the disaster assistance program and things that aren't. So no firm commitments. A willingness to look at it but a statement from the Prime Minister that if he opens this for one, he's got to look at it for all.

He did also commit, and I think that's public knowledge, that the federal government will be working with jurisdictions to review the disaster assistance program, which hasn't been reviewed in a long time. But, again, I'm not seeing that that'll happen in the short term. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a comment, I guess. You know, I look at this jurisdiction that we're in. You know, we're limited to, you know, revenue raise -- or raising ourselves. We count on the federal government for a big majority of the funding that we do have. And, you know, when we have disasters such as this, and multiple ones like in Hay River, over, you know, over 15 months, you know, it takes -- it takes a real financial impact on the territory. It takes it on the government. It takes on -- you know, on individual businesses and everything. And I think that, you know, when the federal government, you know, says that, you know, they want to make sure that everything's fair and equitable, well, you know, I got a problem with that. But the problem is is that the territories is different. You know, we're -- we've got a large -- large area, and we need -- we need this government to step up and pressure and continue pressuring the federal government to ensure that we have the funds that we need to, you know, to cover these costs and any future disasters as well in order that we can actually, you know, continue to build -- build an economy, build infrastructure in the territories and create a -- you know, a good health care system and education system because, you know, if we're spending all our money on disasters, we're going to be in trouble. So, just a comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Member for Monfwi.

Yes.

Go ahead, yes.

Okay. I just wanted to ask the Minister that, well, I do sympathize with evacuees, Behchoko and Wekweeti were also evacuated back in -- or in July, and I do recognize the hard work of the forest firefighters and first responders. According to the report, over 2 million hectares of land was burned. So I just wanted to ask the Minister, do we have an estimate of how much money is spent in the region as per to the forest fire? I know Behchoko and Wekweeti are part of the North Slave region. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, at this point, no, I don't have the breakdown of environment and climate change's budget by region. I just have the -- again, the fact that they are projecting a total shortfall of $75 million. I anticipate, Madam Chair, that this may be complicated by region in that the fires are not necessarily staying in each region. So, you know, there's fires that are burning across communities. So I guess we'll have to see to what extent -- certainly, they're burning across and structurally across multiple constituencies. As how much they are sticking to within the regions, I -- again, I would have to pull out a map and see if we're even able to break that down. I know that there's been an effort, Madam Chair, to ensure that fire crews are being moved around efficiently and so that too may make some of the breakdown more complicated. But, again, as I've said we'll certainly be providing a contracts report of the wildfire season as well as can try to do a breakdown of what gets spent over time, much as we have for the last couple years with the flood response. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious that North and South Slave are -- you know, we see more of our land burn and I know Sahtu and Inuvik region also experienced the same thing, but I was just -- you know, I just wanted to know about, you know, how much money was spent. But I think it's pretty obvious that North and South Slave went through the worst. But I just wanted to ask the Minister that if there's an estimate cost for the evacuation. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Madam Chair, I do have some estimated costs at this point. I know I had an opportunity to meet with several of the Members last week and was provided some of those costs to them. I don't have that necessarily at my fingertips now in that I was planning to focus the discussion today on the fire response and not on the various evacuation costs. Again, that -- I do expect, as I said earlier, that we will certainly be facing a supplementary appropriation, probably in the Department of Finance, which is where some of the added amounts are, but quite possibly for the Municipal and Community Affairs that is the leader of the EMO, that there will be costs also therefore drawing down on as well. As I said, probably were already used up by operations surplus but then so adding to our -- adding some short-term debt to us in order to provide for the massive level of evacuations we've experienced. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Yes, thank you. Yeah, no. Well, it's good that, you know, I'm sure that she's going to share the information with us once the information is available for the evacuations. So I don't have any more question. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. I'd first like to sympathize with all the residents of the Northwest Territories that were uprooted from their communities, their homes, and their communities and who are all down south, and many who are still struggling because of the lack of supports, financial supports from our government. And it's fair enough that, you know, we're hearing that we don't have the financial resources to cover everyone. My colleague from Hay River South, you know, mentioned, you know, some significant amounts, and I feel that it's only fair for our residents for the, you know, amount of time that they have been evacuated.

I also want to express my deepest sympathies to the community in my riding, Enterprise, for the devastation that they faced and the loss of homes and businesses. I think my big concern there is the lead time leading up to the fire because they were in the middle of a festival that weekend, Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday they were -- they were out. I believe the department had advance knowledge of that fire and it wasn't relayed to anyone, not even to me, not even to the residents of Enterprise. I know it was the high winds that escalated the fires towards the community. I don't believe there were any fire crews there, I'm just assuming and from what I'm hearing, and they weren't very noticeable in the community even after because of the flare-ups that were happening within and there was some residents taking it upon themselves to fight those flare-ups in the community. You know, I feel for those people that lost, you know, their homes, their businesses, they -- oh my God, it's devastating. And that's a big concern, is it was known and I'm pretty sure, you know, I would really like the Enterprise fire situation really looked at, investigated. You know, how did we let that happen?

In the past, we had people that manned the fire towers. And ENR at that time, they did away with them saying that well, we got satellites. So I'm just wondering if you with see stuff like that on cloudy days and, you know, would a tower person have helped before the fire even got to Enterprise? I think that'll haunt me for, you know, for the rest of my life, what happened. Where were the crews? Why was no advance warning given? Madam Chair, this is relevant to the budget because I just wonder if the Minister of ECC could possibly answer that question. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member. I will put it to the Minister of Finance, and she can redirect it if -- thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know that some latitude is being given here to try to recognize that we are in a difficult position today. I know that many members of the public are likely watching today and from places all across western Canada at this point. Madam Chair, this -- I am trying to answer some questions that are not directly on the supplementary appropriation but that are at least related to the costs associated or costs that might be associated with amount. Madam Chair, the very specific details of firefighting efforts are really not something that I think we're in a position to answer to today. I'm deeply -- I mean, we were all, I think, affected by watching one of the communities of the Northwest Territories be so decimated by a wildfire and at the same time one of the communities being so urgently -- well, multiple communities being then so urgently removed.

Madam Chair, I heard it described to me when that fire moved almost 40 kilometres in a day, senior members of the firefighting team describe it as a nightmare, and they were outright shell shocked. So this is not to say that there's not people who are experts who are over at ECC and with our fire teams who are not equally affected. Madam Chair, I think beyond that, I don't -- I'm not going to move it over to the Member -- or to the Minister only because, again, there should be a fulsome discussion, there should be full opportunity for question and debate, and right now the context is around the costs of the fires and not some of the other choices that were made. There will be an opportunity for that. I know people will be frustrated that this is not today, but today is really about making sure that those firefighters who are still fighting those fires have the resources to do so. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. And mahsi to the Minister for that answer. I had hoped the Minister of ECC would have answered my question related -- it's budget related, whether we're still going to count on the satellite systems or we're going to get people back on the towers to give advance warnings. Somebody from the tower would have seen that fire, you know, really moving. Why didn't we fight it ASAP? So I'm just hoping the Minister of ECC could answer that. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member. But the supplementary appropriation is on the money that is being used for the fire suppression, and the Minister of Finance responded. So if you have questions on that related to the supplementary appropriation, I'll give the mic back to you. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. Yeah, I don't have a lot of questions on there that other Members haven't touched upon. So I'll pass this time, and I will take it up hopefully in the next sitting. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member. And the Minister did commit that we would have a fulsome discussion on all of the costs and all of the concerns that we have. So if there are any further Members that we haven't heard from to discuss the supplementary appropriation?

Seeing none, Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2023-2024, Department of Environment and Climate Change, wildlife and forest management, not previously authorized, $75 million. Does committee agree?