Good afternoon, colleagues. Please join me in thanking the Yellowknives Dene First Nation drummers for opening our sitting today.

---Applause

Colleagues, it was a long difficult summer. Many residents were displaced for weeks. Wildfires breached community boundaries. People lost their homes and businesses.
Frontline responders worked for weeks fighting back wildfires right on the doorstep of our communities. I want to thank everyone who worked to protect our territory this summer and continue this important work as we meet here today.

Natural disasters take a toll on all of us, physically, mentally and emotionally. While the wildfire season is not over, we are emerging from the most critical stages. We must recover from this natural disaster together. Do what Northerners do best and help one another. Be kind. Be patient. We still have to face the road ahead.

Since our last sitting, two former members of the Legislative Assembly, Robert Sayine and Tommy Enuaraq, have passed. Mr. Sayine was born in Fort Resolution and elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1979. He worked tirelessly for his community, serving as chief, sub-chief and councillor, in addition to many other roles. He is missed by his wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Mr. Enuaraq was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1995 for the people of Baffin Central. A well-known community leader and author, he is missed by his wife Elisapee and six children.

I would also like to acknowledge the passing of Bronwyn Watters, the Northwest Territories Equal Pay Commissioner. Ms. Watters had an extensive career with the GNWT and voluntary service. The GNWT is fortunate to have been a recipient of her exemplary work ethic and dedication. She is dearly missed by her husband and family.

I would also like to take this time to acknowledge all the people who have passed on from all constituencies across the NWT. Our sympathy and condolences go out to those who are grieving.

Members, this is the final sitting of the 19th Assembly. As Members, we have navigated COVID-19 global pandemic, self-isolation and the impact this has had on our communities; we have responded to economic downturns; we have evacuated communities from flooding; and, we continue to manage emergency response to fires today. If there is anything we have learned with this unprecedented last four years as Members, it is how to get the job done in the face of uncertainty.

Members, this is our last sitting to enact legislation and pass the capital budget. I ask all Members to stay focused on the task ahead of us, to get our work done efficiently this week, so we can all go back to support our constituents across the NWT.
Colleagues, please join me in welcoming our pages to the Chamber. It is an honour to share this space with our youth.

---Applause

I would also like to welcome our interpreters back to the Assembly and thank them for their work. Our languages are vital to us as Northerners. They tie us to our culture, to our land, and to one another. During this sitting, I am honoured that we will be able to provide interpretation into the following languages: Dene Suline Yatie, Inuvialuktun, Dene Kede,
Dene Zhatie, Tlicho Yatii; and French

Now, colleagues, it is my duty to advise the House that I have received two messages from the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories.

The first letter reads:

Dear Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise that I assent to the following bills:

• Bill 97, An Act to Postpone Polling Day for the 2023 General Election;
• Bill 99, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No.2, 2023-2024.

Yours truly, Margaret M. Thom, Commissioner.
The second letter reads:

Dear Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise that I recommend to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories the passage of Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures) No. 3, 2023-2024 during the second session of the 19th Legislative Assembly. Your truly, Margaret M. Thom.

Thank you, colleagues. Ministers' statements. Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome my colleagues back to the House for the final session of the 19th Legislative Assembly. Many of us have been through at least one evacuation since we have last met in person, and I am grateful you are all safe.

For many residents of the NWT, you have recently returned home from a very long evacuation. Some residents have lost homes and businesses. For students, this is yet another disruption to their school year.
While it is tradition for the Premier to deliver a final Sessional Statement to recap and celebrate the accomplishments of their government, today I want to start by celebrating the residents and communities for their unending resilience in the face of so much adversity. To Hay River and the K'atlodeeche First Nation in particular, I see the hardship created by repeated evacuations due to both floods and fires. Words cannot express my admiration for you. This is the kind of resilience that makes me proud to live in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge the tragic passing of firefighter Adam Yeadon from Fort Liard. Adam lost his life this summer while protecting his community from wildfire. Adam was passionate about his work as a firefighter, and we will honour his sacrifice with a scholarship in his name.

We often forget that first responders put themselves at risk every day in the critical work they do, and it is important to express our gratitude for their dedication to this work. I am very thankful to all first responders and the firefighters who, like Adam, take pride in their work and commit to it fully despite the risk.
Against the odds, we have demonstrated resilience by working together through a series of adversities. This is a testament to the passion of all Members with whom I have had the pleasure to serve over the last four years. I want to thank everyone in this Chamber for the countless hours they have spent supporting and advocating for their constituents.

We have faced many challenges during the life of this Legislative Assembly. On February 7th, 2020, I tabled the new mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Just over a month later, the first wave of COVID-19 hit the territory. It is hard to believe such a globally significant event now seems like a distant memory, even after it has profoundly shaped nearly every aspect of the Legislative Assembly.

We faced unprecedented flooding for two years in a row, which destroyed homes, cabins, businesses, and other infrastructure in multiple communities. These floods were followed a year later by a catastrophic 2023 wildfire season, in which over four million hectares of the territory have burned, and the season is not over yet.

Frontline workers and emergency management personnel across the territory have been tested time and time again over the life of this Legislative Assembly. They often work incredibly long hours for the benefit of residents, and I would like to thank them for their dedication to public service.

First responders have been with us every step of the way, from the pandemic to natural disasters. As this year's wildfire season stretches into a sixth month, I want to thank them for the amazing work they do each and every day.

I would also like to thank our neighboring provinces and territories who welcomed two thirds of the territory's population during the recent wildfire evacuations. Thank you to all the Indigenous, federal, provincial, territorial and community governments that provided support during this very challenging time.

I also want to acknowledge the many volunteers who provided meals, supported families and did everything from giving rides to offering a place to stay.

Finally, I want to extend my gratitude to the Alberta Emergency Management Agency for offering their assistance and expertise, and for helping to coordinate with other agencies across the province.

Mr. Speaker, during the life of this government, my Cabinet colleagues and I have been committed to serving the people of the Northwest Territories. While our decisions have not always been popular, they have always been made with integrity and with the goal of building a better future for us all.
This government's mandate reflected the 22 priorities set by all Members of the Legislative Assembly. I am pleased to advise Members that despite numerous challenges, this government has fulfilled 77 percent of our mandate commitments, another 13 percent are in progress, 9 percent have been delayed, and less than 1 percent have been discontinued. Later today, I will table the final progress report on the government's mandate which contains more detail about each of the completed commitments.

Since it was tabled in February 2020, the GNWT has initiated and carried out many significant actions in support of the mandate in key areas, including strengthening relationships with Indigenous governments and advancing reconciliation, providing improved social, economic, and governance supports for NWT communities and residents, and implementing efforts to grow, diversify, and sustain our economy and strengthen climate change action.

As a government, we work closely with our colleagues, partners, and residents to make notable progress on the promises we made back in 2020. We have advanced our initiatives despite significant adversity. I am particularly proud of how well we adapted and continued to prioritize the health and well-being of the residents and communities of the NWT.
Mr. Speaker, while the mandate set out the broad strokes of what we wanted to achieve during the 19th Legislative Assembly, it is not the only way to measure this government's success. Supported by an incredible public service, we have so much to be proud of.
During my time as Premier, I have spoken at length about the importance of relationship building and partnerships. In their mandate letters, I set the expectation that every Minister must foster constructive and respectful government-to-government relationships with Indigenous partners and seek ways to advance reconciliation, recognize and affirm Aboriginal rights, and support expanded program and service delivery by Indigenous governments.
I am especially proud of the work we have done with Indigenous governments. We have furthered land and self-government negotiations. We have removed the requirements for Indigenous governments to meet core principles and objectives, and we have published our negotiating mandates for clarity and transparency. We also established the Northwest Territories Council of Leaders, an example of meaningful collaboration between leaders from across the Northwest Territories, and this is a table at which the Government of the Northwest Territories is just one voice among many. The creation of this table has allowed us to strengthen programs and services, including working together to tackle our housing crisis, to respond to the calls for justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and to develop the proposed United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples legislation, which I hope to see passed this session.

This government has been focused on improving the health and well-being of all residents. We have made changes to income assistance to better serve residents, we have increased the number of public housing units, and implemented a housing strategic renewal framework. There are more supports than ever to help seniors age in place. Significant progress has been made toward building a wellness and recovery centre in Yellowknife, and mental health services are undergoing an important transformation to ensure residents can access them in their time of need. Earlier this year, the Government of the Northwest Territories also released the territory's alcohol strategy which lays out concrete steps to address alcohol-related harms through policy, education, public safety, communications, and treatment initiatives.

As part of the long-term commitment to primary health care reform, we have seen the creation of integrated care teams in Fort Smith, Fort Good Hope, and Yellowknife to ensure residents have access to care with the right provider and can build relationships to enhance continuum of care. The child and family services quality improvement plan is helping the government make real progress on delivering culturally safe programs and services to all NWT residents, including those most vulnerable.

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud that the homelessness strategy has been completed during my time as Premier. This work was done collaboratively with partners in the non-profit sector and looks for realistic solutions to challenges. Not only does this strategy set a goal to increase the number of housing units, including transitional housing, it also highlights the need to integrate the delivery of various services to ensure we focus on clients and their needs, as well as their hopes and aspirations. I look forward to seeing the progress on implementing this strategy in the next government.

We have also made great strides in how we address public safety. The pandemic was a wake-up call for governments around the world, and we have learned from our response and from the response of others and used those lessons to inform how we respond to other emergencies like wildfire and flooding.

The GNWT's Emergency Management Organization, or EMO, has been put to the test on multiple occasions over the last four years, most recently during this year's wildfire season. Lessons learned have resulted in continuous improvement such as the addition of regional EMO staff and updates to the GNWT's Disaster Assistance Policy.

Mr. Speaker, The NWT is experiencing the effects of climate change up to four times faster than the rest of the world, and this has been top of mind in decision-making for this government. In addition to completing several climate change-related mandate commitments, I want to highlight the Government of the Northwest Territories' Capital Asset Retrofit Fund, which is now self-sufficient and will result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions, including a reduction of over 17,000 tonnes by the end of this fiscal year. I am very happy to share that $3.75 million of annual utility savings will go towards funding 100 percent of next year's Capital Asset Retrofit Fund.

In the last four years, our government has overseen the completion of several major capital projects, including the Tlicho Highway, Ecole Itlo in Yellowknife, the Inuvik High Powered Wind Turbine project, the Hay River Fish Plant, and various highway improvement projects. Further, we have successfully operated and maintained hundreds of government assets from buildings to highways to ensure important services could continue to be available, despite some exceptionally difficult circumstances.

With the creation of the Department of Environment and Climate Change, we have also seen an improvement to how this government coordinates and makes decisions on land and natural resources management. The updated Healthy Land Healthy People work plan scopes out the future for protected and conserved areas, and the Participant Funding Program provides long-term secure funding to establish and maintain protected and conserved areas. We have also seen the creation of protected and conserved areas including the Edehzhie national Wildlife Area, the Ts'ude Niline Tuyeta Indigenous and territorial protected area, and the Sahtu K'aowe Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area. Collaboration on Public Land Act regulations through the intergovernmental council on Land and Resource Management Legislative Development Protocol is also a transformative approach for how we as a government work on legislation.

On the education and training front, I am very proud of the work of our education system and of the hardworking educators across the territory who adapted to the challenging circumstances of the pandemic and pivoted to an online learning model to allow students to continue their studies at home. In fact, this year NWT schools have once again adapted to change as they begin to pilot curriculum from British Columbia which is open to NWT Indigenous ways and will appropriately challenge students while supporting key learning for life.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to highlight the incredible work that has been done to advance Indigenous language programming in NWT schools. In particular, the Mentor Apprentice Program helps apprentices increase their ability to understand and speak their language by living life in their language.

This government has worked hard to support businesses, including continuing to promote the importance of the resource sector and the significant opportunities it holds, as well as undertaking the long-awaited procurement review. Private industry is a cornerstone of our economy, and we have been working hard to cut red tape and support entrepreneurs. I recognize that more is needed to enable government support for businesses during emergencies, and it is my hope this will be top of mind for the next government.

Mr. Speaker, we have made significant changes to the way the Government of the Northwest Territories does businesses. I want to take this opportunity to again thank all Members of the Legislative Assembly, residents, businesses, community leaders, stakeholders, and all budget dialogue participants for their input in developing the GNWT budgets during the 19th Legislative Assembly.

The 2023-2024 Budget has been challenged by the dramatically increased costs of this year's wildfire season. As a result, our operating surplus is expected to drop from a projected $178 million to about $5 million. This drop in operating surplus is expected in the current fiscal year only and is not expected to persist in future years. However, the GNWT will likely run a deficit in 2023-2024 when our capital expenditures are considered.

The fiscal outlook is stable despite these large expenditure shocks, partly because Canada will provide disaster relief funding. Under the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement, in the coming years the GNWT may recoup up to 90 percent of evacuation and rebuilding costs incurred during the 2023 wildfire season. Normally this can take several years, but we are negotiating with Canada to advance some of this money sooner. The federal government has been receptive to this idea and is considering it. The stable outlook is also due to right-sizing the capital budget this fiscal year to reflect the capacity to complete infrastructure projects, which improved the cash balance and debt outlook. Additionally, strengthening the Fiscal Responsibility Policy so that GNWT total borrowing is more closely linked to the federally-imposed borrowing limit helps maintain the stable outlook. So, while this will be a challenging year, our overall fiscal situation will remain relatively stable over the next few years, and we do not anticipate reaching the federal debt limit in the near term.
Mr. Speaker, during my time as Premier, I have tirelessly advocated for the Northwest Territories to receive appropriate funding from the Government of Canada. I have been especially vocal in the last year, particularly in the media and at the various meetings of Canada's Premiers. Most recently, I have been clear that this has been a record-setting wildfire season for the territory, including an extraordinary financial cost and we cannot face this burden alone.

Canada's failure to make transformational investments will leave the Northwest Territories facing the devastation and staggering cost of climate change without sufficient economic opportunities to cover the increased expenses. Modern transportation, energy, and telecommunications infrastructure are paramount for the prosperity of Northerners and to keep pace with our southern counterparts. Such investments would support life changing projects and enable NWT residents to pursue financial stability.
The federal government's Arctic and Northern Policy Framework, launched in 2019, acknowledged the serious gaps between the North and South when it comes to infrastructure, as well as government programs and supports available to residents. To date, there has been no implementation plan, nor any dedicated funding announced. I believe strongly that these gaps have widened in recent years due to the effects of the pandemic, Canada's per capita funding model, and the insistence that the NWT fit into national program models without recognizing our unique circumstances.

Northerners are not second-class citizens in Canada and should not be treated as such. In my final sessional statement as Premier, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: The North will not be silenced in its calls for treatment equal to that received by Canadian provinces. The time for investment in the North and true partnership is now. I want to thank our allies in Ottawa and beyond, for helping to amplify this message to the federal government. We must continue to deliver this message loud and clear on behalf of all our residents.

In the final Session of the 19th Legislative Assembly, we have critically important work ahead to set up the next Legislative Assembly for success. We will debate first-of-their-kind legislation, including the Forest Act and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Implementation Act. The Forest Act was developed side-by-side with Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations and renewable resource boards using, for the first time, the intergovernmental council on Land and Resource Management's Legislative Development Protocol. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Implementation Act was developed through the NWT Council of Leaders, a shining example of partnership with Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am so pleased to be closing out this Legislative Assembly with incredibly strong relationships across the territory.

Mr. Speaker, no Premier makes this journey alone. I want to thank the public for holding me and this government to account. I want to thank the Ministers for their hard work over these past four years and for the leadership they have shown. To all levels of government, but especially to Indigenous governments: Thank for you working with us and developing what I think are among the strongest relationships between our government and Indigenous leadership in the territory's history. Thank you to my fellow Members for their passion and for their many ideas to improve our territory. To the staff that have supported Cabinet, my heartfelt thanks for your dedication and expertise.
Mr. Speaker, it is bittersweet to deliver my final sessional statement. The last four years have challenged me in ways I cannot fully express, but I can say with certainty that I have grown as a person and as a leader. I have also been privileged to see the personal and professional growth of colleagues around this House.
As this government comes to an end, and another is about to begin, I am optimistic when I think about what's in store for the NWT.
I want to thank my colleagues for trusting me four years ago. Leading our territory is one of the great privileges of my life and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Colleagues, before we continue, I wish to draw your attention to the presence of a former Member Kieron Testart in the gallery. Mr. Testart was a Member for Kam Lake in the 18th Assembly. Welcome to the Chamber.

Ministers' statements. Members' statements. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the recent wildfires will be etched in everyone's minds for quite some time. Three of the largest centres in the Northwest Territories were affected with evacuation orders: Fort Smith which includes Smith's Landing First Nation; Hay River; Yellowknife, which includes Dettah and N'dilo. Equally affected were my riding communities of K'atlodeeche, Enterprise, and Kakisa. This is the largest evacuation order, ever, of residents, due to wildfires. Hay River and K'atlodeeche had faced evacuations back in May due to a large, fast moving wildfire not seen previously, and a fire of this magnitude should have been a wake-up call.

Mr. Speaker, I, and on behalf of my colleagues, extend sincere sympathies to the many residents of our territory who were evacuated from their homes and communities. To the residents of Enterprise and Paradise Gardens, words cannot replace what was lost in the fires. But take solace, you were always in our thoughts and prayers. Our heartfelt sympathies to the many elders and long-term care patients who were displaced and sent far from their loved ones, you are all in our thoughts and prayers.

Mr. Speaker, I and my colleagues would like to extend heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the fire crews, fire management teams, and the many volunteers who were involved in containing the wildfires. It was an onerous task but you all stuck it out and for that the residents are forever grateful. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Members' statements. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to begin this final sitting of the 19th Assembly, I would like to start by recognizing and thanking all the people who helped with Fort Smith's evacuation and protection in this year's record-breaking wildfire season. This includes all wildfire personnel in the Department of Environment and Climate Change formerly known as ENR, as well as the personnel from Parks Canada, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Department of MACA, the business community, and regular citizens who stepped up and volunteered to help in any way they could. Thanks to the combined efforts of all these groups, Fort Smith is still standing with no homes lost or human lives lost due to wildfires. Thank you also to those residents who stayed behind to help, to defend, and look after the community while it was evacuated.

As MLA for Thebacha, on behalf of the Fort Smith residents, thank you everyone who helped with these efforts of protecting Fort Smith from disaster. Moreover, Mr. Speaker, while it is certainly positive that Fort Smith itself did not sustain any major physical damage due to wildfires, the landscape has changed.

There are some sad stories that occurred during the period of evacuation that I want to share with you. With the permission of their families, I am sad to report that Fort Smith lost five citizens during the five weeks that we were evacuated from our community. The names of these individuals are Sandy Murphy, a senior from the seniors home. Chris Caron whom I traveled with every Friday through the entire 19th Assembly. I will miss him. Michael Walsh, who I met during my last campaign in 2019 and is a senior whose daughter is Shauna Walsh. Jason Abraham, a Salt River Member. And Philip MacDonald, who is also a Salt River Member, and was the oldest person in Fort Smith. On behalf of all Fort Smith residents, I want to offer my heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of each of these individuals. These are a sad loss for our community. It is always hard to lose someone but I know that it was especially hard to handle during such a mixed up time throughout our town's evacuation. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, it is important to note that none of these deceased individuals had died as a result of the wildfires and that each person passed away due to various reasons. There is, however, an additional story that I want to mention which did result in life loss due to wildfire.

During the second evacuation of Hay River, Fort Smith residents Mike Curet and his wife Halina Kate did lose some animals along with their truck and lifestock trailer as they were fleeing Hay River. In all, they lost five alpacas and two guard dogs named Luna and Cassie. Those animals were part of Mike and Halina's family, and it is very unfortunate that they died during the evacuation.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I also want to acknowledge the fallen NWT firefighter, Mr. Adam Yeadon, who died on the job in July while battling a fire near Fort Liard. Adam was a Member of the Acho Dene Koe First Nation. He was only 25 years old. He had a young daughter and a loving partner whom he left behind. As Thebacha MLA, I want to offer my condolences to his family and his community for this tragic loss.

And, lastly, I want to thank the Cabinet, all Regular Members, all Regular MLA Members, and all the staff of the Legislative Assembly, who helped me navigate through this evacuation.

I also want to thank my husband Peter and my dog Rambo. Both of them stayed behind and looked after people's pets, harvest people's gardens since grocery trucks could not deliver food due to road closures. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Members' statements. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd first like to say Happy Birthday to my son R.J.

Mr. Speaker, over the summer, wildfires in the North South Slave Region destroyed homes, businesses, and community infrastructure which will have a long-lasting effect on the emotional and mental well-being of residents of Hay River, K'atlodeeche First Nation, and Enterprise.

Mr. Speaker, many of us have seen first-hand the devastation in Enterprise, Hay River, and K'atlodeeche, and along the highway where cabins were lost due to these wildfires. Residents are asking, could more have been done to get the fires under control sooner? Possibly. But one thing is for sure, if not for the immediate action by Hay River's EMO and the sheer determination and work of those wildfire and structural frontline firefighters, of those who fought the fire from the air, and of those who provided logistical and various supports to all frontline workers, the outcome might have been much different and much more devastating and for this we thank them.

Mr. Speaker, this wildfire impacted residents of Hay River and the residents of the South Slave who were directed to evacuate on very short notice which many did, and for that we must thank them for their cooperation, patience, and understanding throughout this ordeal. The evacuation was not only for their safety and for the safety of their family and neighbours but provided frontline firefighters with room to effectively fight the fire that surrounded and endangered homes, businesses and community infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, the Yukon territory and the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and British Columbia, along with many of their residents, businesses and NGOs, all stepped up and welcomed our residents with open arms. They mobilized quickly to provide accommodation, meals, local transportation, mental health, and medical health supports and more. For this, we thank them.

Mr. Speaker, the First Nation and Metis governments provided ongoing financial, transportation, accommodation, and mental health supports to their citizens throughout the evacuation, as well many NGOs including United Way, have been instrumental in providing financial and other resources and supports and fill gaps left by government. For this, we thank them.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the work done by Hay River mayor Candace Jamieson, councillor Robert Bouchard, and volunteer Cathy McBryan who, among the many duties they had, spent countless hours at the airport ensuring safe and organized departures of all evacuees of Hay River. For this, I thank them. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South Slave. Members' statements. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Like most of us in this Chamber, my family and I were the subjects of the mandatory evacuation orders in August and September. I want to extend my personal thanks to all those firefighters, support workers, and other essential service personnel that stayed behind to protect our communities. I also want to thank the Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Yukon governments, the non-governmental organizations, the volunteers, and businesses that helped support our residents while we were away. I also want to acknowledge that as bad as Yellowknife had it, other communities suffered longer evacuations and Enterprise, K'atlodeeche, and Paradise Gardens are going to need very substantial government assistance with their future.

While it might be easy to criticize evacuations, there is always room for improvement. It was a miracle that 19,000 people were, for the most part, able to leave Yellowknife safely over a three-day period. Clearly there is also a need to work more closely with Indigenous governments for emergency management and evacuations.

Moving forward, there are still two areas that require further attention. Firstly, while I appreciate Cabinet's work during evacuation, the financial supports to date have not been adequate or equitable. The evacuation travel support program is not sufficient as $750 per vehicle does not cover those who voluntarily left on commercial flights, in some cases at great personal expense so as to not stress government charter flights, or those residents that could not access supports upon evacuation to other jurisdictions for a whole variety of reasons. I will continue to fight for more equitable and generous financial support.

Our small businesses also require more support. Many have not fully recovered from COVID when struck with impacts of these evacuations. It is my understanding that evacuations costs are eligible for up to 90 percent reimbursement under the federal guidelines for the disaster financial assistance arrangements. I fail to understand why Cabinet cannot provide more and fair financial support for evacuees and small businesses. Lastly, it is now time to start to formulate the lessons learned exercise for firefighting and emergency management. As I have said before, this needs to be a comprehensive, independent, and third party public review. All available tools and options including the Public Inquiries Act need to be carefully considered with an opportunity for public input. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, Nunakput constituents and former residents who passed away since our last sitting in June.

Paulatuk: Sadie Marie Grover Sikilak Lester who passed away September 4th, 2023. Sadie was a strong survivor who did everything she could to raise her children as a single mother. She was also a residential school survivor and she will be sadly missed.

Sachs Harbour: Mr. Noah Carpenter, son of Fred Carpenter and Ada Gruben. A respected retired medical doctor, a surgeon, top in the field of neurosurgeon. He will be retired and living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is survived by his siblings and many adopted brothers and sisters. He was a Inuvialuit and a role model to all the people.

Tuktoytakuk: Joanne Felix, a young lady from Tuktoytakuk who passed away in Whitehorse, Yukon. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, Mr. Speaker.

And again, Adam Yeadon, the young firefighter who passed away, you know, working for the people of the Northwest Territories' safety. Thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I would also like to, people that I grown up with in Tuk, Don Gruben Senior, who passed away a few months ago and his son Jerry passed away a few weeks ago. And my thoughts and prayers are with Darlene and the family. And gone but not forgotten.

My good buddy growing up and going to residential school, Patty Elikuk. I just found out Patty passed away and his funeral is today in Inuvik and so thoughts and prayers with the family.

And another good friend growing up, Jason Firth, also known as Jim Bob. I got a lot of good memories with him. And he will be sadly missed. My thoughts and prayers are going out to Hazel and to Jenkins and the family in Fort McPherson.

And one of the toughest, the last couple of weeks ago, Mr. Speaker, I lost my brother-in-law, Bruce. And my sister Pauline, that's my older sister, through the evacuation and all that, you know, with all that being traveling down to BC to the hospice there and my sister and myself were there, caring for him, and his brother was there, which was really good, you know, and Bruce is a 14-year vet of the Canadian Armed Forces. And I really enjoyed his company while he was here with us in Yellowknife and often spent a lot of time with him. But to my sister Pauline, you are not alone, and I love you and we are going to get through this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and communities at this time.

Members' statements. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Northwest Territories has been through hard times since the Assembly began four years ago. The pandemic, floods, fire, even war, have darkened our days and brought our people nothing but stress and uncertainty. It has also tested the resolve of this government to steer the territory through the worst of times. We are in the thick of it, Mr. Speaker. Even today, session is on an emergency basis and I think that it is important that we recognize the people who have been working hard to protect our communities while their friends and families have been forced to evacuate. I would like to say thank you and recognize all the essential workers from the City of Yellowknife, Town of Hay River, Town of Fort Smith, YKDFN, Kakisa, K'atlodeeche Reserve.

Mr. Speaker, when I recognize these people coming up shortly I just want to say, you know, they have been working long days and nights to protect our communities and our homes and be ready to welcome, for me and my community the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, home. I want to say a big mahsi cho to Elvis Kotchilea, Brian Proby, Kieron Testart, Bochia Kotchilea, Therese Lynn, Roger Mackeinzo, Joe Dewar, Cash McMann, Silent Safkin, Trisha Liske, Norman Sangris, Gordon Sangris, Eric Capoe, and the volunteers Brian Sundberg, Ethan Sundberg, Ernest Betsina, Norman Betsina, Nikki Betsina, including former chief Eddie Sangris and chief Fred Sangris. And there are so many others who have pitched in during these times, mahsi cho again from the bottom of my heart.

Mr. Speaker, Northerners are resilient and strong. Our Indigenous brothers and sisters have weathered greater storms that our ancestors survived since time immemorial. The community's display of compassion and generosity is humbling. It is no surprise that we are taking care of each other. That's what Northerners do.

Mahsi to everyone who has stepped up to help the evacuees from provinces, provincial governments to the non-government organizations, to cities and band councils, and ordinary citizens pitching in to help. And I want to recognize and include
Deninu Kue First Nation, the Fort Resolution Metis Council, and Lutselk'e Dene First Nation. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member statement. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker; thank you, colleagues. But just because Northerners can handle any crisis, it doesn't they don't have questions about how this government has been managing our current state of emergencies. It does not take a scholar to notice that the communication from our Cabinet colleagues have been limited, confusing, and in some cases contradictory. Just this alone has caused enough for a concern. If our government cannot effectively communicate, it seems unprepared and for some untrustworthy.

Mr. Speaker, the people are frustrated and our patience are running out. We cannot expect that thousands of displaced residents can support themselves without help from our government. We must do more. Our people are looking for us for leadership. Even though the session is short, rest assured I am working day and night to support my constituents through the crisis and ensure our people that are back safely to their homes and their traditional territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe Wiilidhe. Members' statements. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we all know this has been the worst forest fire season in the NWT history. This is the first time in history that two-thirds of NWT residents were forced to leave their homes. These tragic events displaced nearly 30,000 people for weeks and resulted in the loss of millions of hectares of land burned. In Tlicho region, four houses and 15 traditional cabins burned, as well devastating loss of traditional food from both vegetation and wildlife. The damage done to our lands will take decades to repair.

Mr. Speaker, this fire season has seen two Tlicho communities, Wekweeti and Behchoko, needing to be evacuated. Other communities were also evacuated, and some were put on alert status.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT current wildfire management policy has completely failed the people of the NWT. All NWT residents have been impacted and millions of hectares of land destroyed across the NWT. This wildfire management policy needs to change before more damage is done to NWT lands and communities.

Mr. Speaker, these fires all started out small and controllable. In such a dry, in a hot dry year, these fires should have been put out right away, not allowed to burn hoping that they extinguish themselves. This failure allowed millions of hectares of land destroyed and impacted the lives of every NWT resident. We cannot even begin to estimate the wildlife, the animals burned, plants, and all the animal habitat destroyed and the long-term impact this will have on residents of the NWT. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, all fire seasons, during all the fire seasons, the Minister has said that it is the hottest driest year, and that is true. In these extreme weather condition, a change to the policy should have happened. Letting fires burn until they threaten critical infrastructure has catastrophic results for the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, GNWT policy may have failed the people of the NWT the people of NWT did not fail each other. The people of the NWT were there to support one another. They opened their homes and hearts, volunteered their time and resources to support each other. It makes me proud to be a resident of the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the firefighters for the work that they do. They put their lives on the line and work countless hours to save NWT communities and our communities of Wekweeti and Behchoko. I also want to thank all the community government workers, volunteers, people who stayed behind in Behchoko and Wekweeti to support the firefighters. Even after ECC pulled out of Behchoko, some residents stayed behind to continue fighting the fire and save our community.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank all the people who supported Tlicho citizens during Behchoko and Wekweeti evacuation in Yellowknife. Thank you for your generosity and kindness.

Mr. Speaker, we were not happy with how our Tlicho communities were treated during Yellowknife evacuation. I will have another Member statement to discuss these concerns. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have stood in this House and have spoke about the symbiotic relationship between between GNWT and private industry. We have a fundamental need for the sustainability of private industry. Its growth and prosperity is a true indicator of a healthy economic environment.

Here in Yellowknife, we saw firsthand how reliant governments are on private industry. Our private industry is the backbone of this territory and showed up in a big way as business and public servants worked together to fire smart this town.

A healthy territory relies on a vibrant private sector which isn't only a reliance on the businesses deemed essential and able to stay. We rely on hundreds of business from medium corporations and limited liability companies to small and home-based businesses that collectively serve residents and government.

Mr. Speaker, our businesses are hurting. Many have said evacuations hit harder than COVID. Hay River businesses experienced three evacuations in a year and a half, South Slave operators saw significant weeks of evacuations. Some South Slave businesses lost everything. And even with the three weeks of evacuation here in Yellowknife, without infrastructure loss, cost financial shortfalls of $20,000 in some and well over hundreds of thousands in others.

Mr. Speaker, the income disruption policy is not reflective of northern wages and owners don't qualify. The SEED relief covers some monthly expenses but is capped at $5,000 as is the BDIC WARM funding. I have heard some people say that businesses should have had insurance, but business insurance does not cover natural disasters or pandemics. Multiple Kam Lake businesses continue to pay salaries or allowances to staff out of a personal duty of loyalty and care for their employees. With no billable hours, this caused incredible hardship for those employers.

Mr. Speaker, in a nation with a labour shortage, these employers need their staff to return to Yellowknife to continue to fulfill fall contracts. And this government needs those residents to come home too. Some businesses, without the cash flow to continue to pay salary, lost staff who couldn't weather the uncertainty of an evacuation, some have cancelled contracts or shifted business operations, driving summer work into winter months with greater costs while others work on an exit plan, Mr. Speaker. This means we have not yet experienced the actual fire season cost as the dominoes continue to fall in private industry. Businesses need to save for a rainy day they say but this is not a rainy day, Mr. Speaker. These are the impacts of unmitigated climate change on a territory without a viable aspirational plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Members' statements. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I would like to join in my colleagues and thanking all of our forestry firefighters, all of those who worked at -- our pilots, our tanker bases, in those logistics, to the hundreds of volunteers in multiple communities, especially here in Yellowknife who stayed behind and built what is truly an impressive fire break in a matter of days as well as all of the municipal staff. And lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank all of our constituents who have been through a lot, and it seems like the majority of time in this Assembly has been spent in some sort of state of emergency, and it feels like we just can't get a rest. I know a lot of us are feeling like little stress, and I encourage everyone, you know, to try and take some time now to recover and hopefully we get a little break from this never-ending string of emergencies.

But Mr. Speaker, that may not be the case, and I want to echo the sentiment of some of my colleagues that we have to take this after-action review seriously. We have to work with our municipalities, and I think that we have to answer some fundamental questions, one is on fire management. Are we spending enough on fire prevention or are communities properly funded to build fire breaks? Are we doing enough control burning now that cooler weather is with us? Emergency management, can we really continue to have our communities be the lead on emergency management?

Here in Yellowknife, it was very clear that the City of Yellowknife was never resourced and funded to do air evacuation or to evacuate a whole city, let alone provide accommodations across multiple jurisdictions. We stepped that up and did that, but it raises fundamental questions about where that responsibility should lie in the first place.

I think there are lots of questions about our forest management practices going forward. Certainly we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on suppression, and we are experts in that front. But there are questions about how large fire breaks need to be built around communities. Communities, two of them, we had the opportunity to tragically to see the one in Enterprise just before the community was burnt, Mr. Speaker, and they were proud of the size of that. But was there any size of fire break that would have prevented that fire or would control burning have done that? I don't have these answers. They are technical questions, but I think this is the entire scope of an after-action review that we owe our citizens and I think needs public input from the public and all the community and all of the people involved in this so we can answer some of these questions and we don't find ourselves fighting over jurisdiction in the midst of an emergency again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Adam Blake Yeadon was born on August 30th, 1997, at Fort Nelson BC to Barbara Bertrand and Jack Yeadon. Adam was the fourth of five children.

Adam was raised in Fort Liard where he lived most of his life. He went to Bella Coola for a couple of years with his dad and brother Jackson, but his heart was calling him home and he came back to live with his sister Donna and her husband Norman.

He was dedicated -- described as a loveable and happy child who grew into a generous young man with drive and enthusiasm. He was always willing and smiling, hardworking, and loved using the chainsaw. It was his prized possession.

Mr. Speaker, Adam was most happy when he was on the land. He was never afraid to be alone in the bush; it's where he felt his happiest and safe and connected. He was a determined individual. A perfect example was when he was 17 years old, he decided that he wanted to be a wild land firefighter so, when the plane landed in Fort Liard to take people to Fort Simpson for training, he jumped on the plane. Unfortunately, when he landed an instructor looked at him and asked him his age. After telling him the truth, his age, he was then sent home on the next plane to Fort Liard. This not did not stop him. The following year, he was prepared and ready when the call came for people interested in training. Once he took the training, it confirmed his passion to be a wild land firefighter. He loved his EFF family immensely and took his job very seriously. He was very proud to be part of the EFF community.

On February 21st, 2020, his dad's birthday, his life improved with Keena coming into his life. She remembered going for a walk that day and Adam stopped her for a chat. This moment led to them getting together and the following year they both welcomed their most beautiful baby, Aisey. Adam was such a loving father and very protective of his family. Adam was very loved by his family and friends. They returned the love he had for them.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say his colleagues built and placed a cross on the site where he passed away and will be doing a moment of silence at the start of each fire season. This was due to their respect for him.

The family would like to thank ECC for all the support they received during this difficult time, and the Premier for being able to come to the funeral. He is predeceased by his loving mother who passed away in 2006.

Mr. Speaker, he will be greatly remembered and loved by his father Jack, brothers Carl and Jackson, his sisters Crystal and Donna, his girlfriend Keena and his daughter Aisey, his extended family, friends, and the firefighting family in the community ever Fort Liard and the residents of the Nahendeh. Mr. Speaker, he will be sadly missed.

Thank you, Member for Nahendeh. Our continued thoughts and prayers for the family and community at this time.

Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize my constituent Julie Thrasher who, unfortunately, I can't see from where I sit. But Julie is a Great Slave constituent, also originally from Inuvik, and also a strong supporter in the community, often feeding and helping the vulnerable population. So I just wanted to say thank you to Julie for that work; it's well needed. So thank you; welcome.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to recognize Julie in the gallery as well. I knew her growing up in Aklavik, and she's a good friend of mine and she's like family. So thank you for being here, Julie. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Tu Nedhe Wiilidheh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to recognize the drummers that were here earlier at the beginning of the session. And I'd like to recognize Cody Drygeese, Lerory Betsina, Cody Liske, Daniel Liske, Randy Bellageron, Ethan Sundberg. I also want to recognize my CA Shirley Tsetta, and all the translators; it's good to see you all back again. And GNWT staff and the ledge staff. And also Pascal Erasmus who was here a little earlier. And Kieron Testart, former MLA for the Yellowknife area. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd also like to recognize Mr. Kieron Testart who is a constituent of Range Lake and I believe is putting his name forward, so welcome to the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Oral Questions. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd ask the Premier to confirm what programs and associated funding amounts are in place to specifically support businesses impacted by the wildfires, and how quickly can we get that support out to alleviate the financial burden on our local businesses? Thank you.

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

I think I'd like to defer that to the Minister of Finance. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister responsible for Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at present, there's two programs already operational, and they were both stood during the midst of the evacuation. The first one I'll speak to out of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. We changed the SEED program that a lot of businesses that are familiar with, added on a directive relating specifically to the wildfires. Under this program at present, there is a contribution amount of up to $5,000 for eligible costs that were incurred. There's also, under the BDIC, they've also had their board -- brought their board together and established a program that they're calling the Wildfire Assistance and Relief Measures Program. It's very similar, and it provides up to $5,000 again for evacuated communities, businesses, and $3,500 for those that are in business -- or in communities that were otherwise affected. And the two are working together just to ensure that they can try to maximize benefits for businesses that might be eligible under the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good to hear that we do have some programs. It's not a lot of money because for Hay River and, you know, Enterprise and K'atlodeeche, you know, we've been through, you know, three major events here in the last 15 months, and it's really taken its impact -- it's really impacting businesses. So I think we have to take another look at that. But anyways, Mr. Speaker, I'd ask the Premier if any requests have gone into the federal government for additional financial support for businesses impacted by the wildfires; if so, and what has the response been? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That one, Mr. Speaker, really does lay largely in the purview of the Premier's office. But given the multi-department nature of the evacuations and the emergencies, quite a number of departments are working together to be in touch with their counterparts. I know ITI officials are in touch with their counterparts. But beyond that, we've also all been contributing to work that's happening out of the Premier's office. And with the invitation of the federal government, knowing that we're going to have some asks, to prepare a very thorough and complete look at what kind of asks we might have and what they would be. So that is going out. If it hasn't gone out in a formal sense but, again, that's coming because of the conversations happening both out of the Premier's office but with a lot of our officials. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate that answer. You know, however, you know, like I say, we've gone through three major events in Hay River and, you know, a year after the flood, we're still -- you know, we still got a number of files that need to be actioned. And when I see what's happened here, it's going to be -- this is going to be still existing after the next Assembly, the way things are going. So I think we need to be really proactive and forceful when we're dealing with the federal government to try and get additional funds, otherwise we're going to lose residents, we're going to lose businesses, and we're going to see, you know, the NWT kind of end up being almost a third world area. So anyways, Mr. Speaker, what percent -- I'd ask the Premier what percentage of wildfire and evacuation costs will the federal government reimburse this government and how quickly can we expect to see that reimbursement? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at a practical level, that's Department of MACA but, really, from a government fiscal perspective, I can say that the Department of Finance is looking quite closely at what we might get. There's a sliding scale for -- under the disaster financial assistance arrangements. That's the federal program that applies to all provinces and territories. When you get to a certain level, which we most certainly have hit, you can get up to 90 percent of eligible costs. And that's the tricky part, Mr. Speaker, is that I don't get to determine what the eligible costs are. What we do is we ask for everything. But it certainly is unlikely that we will be getting everything. And whatever we do get will come at 90 percent amount. But, Mr. Speaker, we certainly will continue to adapt the response of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Twice now in the sort of preambles of questions, the Members sort of mentioned if there's insufficiency. Mr. Speaker, just like I said in COVID many times, the government continues to monitor their response, and we'll continue to do its best to adapt as we go forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, it's important, I think that -- I think that we as government, and the future government, really take a look at what happened here in this last few years because when you look at what happened with the flooding and also with the fires now, the impact it had. It had -- for Hay River, it impacted the fishing industry. For communities along the waterways, it impacted access to their cargo. You know, it just goes on and on. It -- you know, basically it really impacted businesses, individuals, health -- people's health, everything. So I think it's very important that this government and future governments really take a look at it. But, Mr. Speaker, over the past four years, this territory has experienced major disaster -- disasters, and there appears to be a pattern emerging.

Going forward, what is this government, in terms of planning and costing, doing to prepare for climate change and future disasters as they occur? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the wildfires, the floods, COVID have certainly impacted every single sector large and small. Larger businesses might have the ability to weather it better but that certainly doesn't make it any easier. It's also impacted all levels of government and it has impacted this government.

Mr. Speaker, we can't necessarily -- if I could plan for a large scale natural disaster, you'd see a budget line item for -- you know, to plan for the large scale emergency. We aren't able to plan for a large scale emergency by virtue of the fact that it's an emergency. What we can do, Mr. Speaker, is keep our fiscal House in order so that we have the capacity to provide relief and we have the capacity to provide funding, we have the capacity to support these emergent events as they occur, and to be able to stand and say look, we'll continue to adapt that response. So, Mr. Speaker, we were lucky to have forecasted a significant operating surplus this year. That has given us a cushion from which we were able to then provide a response to the emergency, and we're going to have to continue to be mindful of how we get back to that place of having large operational surpluses so we have that financial flexibility to be able to respond if or when an emergency occurs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier. With regard to the recent evacuations and adequacy of government supports, it's my understanding that evacuation costs are eligible up -- for up to 90 percent reimbursement under the federal guidelines for the disaster financial assistance arrangements. Page 19, eligible response costs include temporary relocation, shelter, food, clothing, rescue, transportation, and related social and inquiry services. End of quote.

So can the Premier confirm whether evacuation costs for NWT residents, including any GNWT initiatives such as the Evacuation Travel Support Program, are eligible for federal reimbursement? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to defer that to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Minister responsible for MACA.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all disaster experienced to date in the Northwest Territories are eligible for reimbursement under two federal funding programs. The Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement, or DFAA, and Emergency Management Assistance Program, or EMAP. In the event of a large scale natural disasters, the DFAA provides reimbursement to territorial, plus provincial governments for related costs, including evacuations. The GNWT will seek reimbursement for all evacuation related costs which we have incurred. This includes the Evacuation Travel Support Program and direct GNWT costs such as flights and accommodations. Evacuation costs incurred by NWT residents are not eligible for reimbursement under DFAA. This is because DFAA is a program of last resort. After all resources of funding, including insurance, have been exhausted, this -- it is not an insurance program. It is an -- and it's not a compensation program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. So given that most of the evacuation costs are reimbursed well, I just don't understand why our support programs haven't been a little more generous and fairer. So I've received numerous complaints about the unfairness and inadequacy of the Evacuation Travel Support Program. So can the Premier tell us whether Cabinet is ready to reconsider the scope and amount of the current program and better support our residents that were evacuated? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Finance is not considering expanding the scope and amount to the Evacuation Travel Support Program. The Evacuation Travel Support Program was established to provide financial relief to NWT residents who evacuated in a vehicle during the evacuation that occurred as a result of the 2023 wildfires. I recognize that funding through this program alone does not cover all potential costs associated with the evacuation or incurred by residents.

In addition to the Evacuation Travel Support Program, the GNWT offered a number of different supports for evacuees during the evacuation including evacuation charter flights, gas at the Alberta border for evacuees who drove, accommodations at evacuation centres, and private accommodations where space was limited at evacuation centres, food allowance and meals, access to free municipal and provincial campgrounds, and a donation of $400,000 to the United Way to support the number of community organizations. I encourage residents to contact their insurance companies to see if they have coverage for evacuation in their policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'm sure the Minister recognizes that I'm going to keep fighting for better support for the evacuees. But during my statement, I recognized that it was quite an accomplishment to evacuate most Yellowknife residents safely over a very short period of time. However, there can and should be improvements made to how we work together with Indigenous governments, including legislative and policy changes. So can the Minister tell us how GNWT intends to work better with Indigenous governments in the future on emergency management? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, MACA's experience is that many Indigenous governments work directly with community governments as part of their local EMO. Emergency management works best when it's addressed at the local level and by those who can direct community government staff and have the authority to mobilize community government, its assets, as part of the emergency response. There does need to be more clarity on roles and responsibilities, including relationships between the local EMO and the regional EMO and the territorial EMO, especially given the Emergency Management Act assigned responsibility for emergency management to community governments. We recognize there needs to be further cooperation with Indigenous governments for emergencies, and we will -- we want to hear directly from the Indigenous governments as part of the after-action review. And I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, I've had a number of conversations with Indigenous leaders on that, and I agree we need to work better together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I believe he's quite sincere, and I do appreciate his efforts on that front, so.

I believe it is time, though, Mr. Speaker, to start to think about lessons learned about a fire and emergency management from these evacuations. There should be an independent third-party public review, and I think one of the options that needs to be considered is the Public Inquiries Act. But I'd like to know from the Minister whether Cabinet has a position and a direction on such a review of fire and emergency management. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we've already started to turn our attention to the lessons learned on the emergency management side. People have been taking notes. We've been working with the municipalities, hearing things that work really well, and things that we can improve on. There will be an independent third party review. It is a standard practice in all jurisdictions to conduct an after-action review after disaster events to examine what happened, what worked, and what didn't, and to make recommendations for improvements going forward. The 2023 wildfire after-action review is anticipated to be a large undertaking and will be public. We want to hear from the public, staff working directly on the emergency response, Indigenous governments, NGOs, federal and provincial, territorial partners who assisted with providing evacuation supports and others. We will not be waiting for recommendations to start making improvements. We know that much work can start now, including review of the NWT emergency plan, increase training to support the community governments, starting a review with the Emergency Management Act. This work cannot be finalized until the recommendations are provided. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are related to the recent wildfires which caused widespread evacuations and total destruction to properties. The wildfire at Enterprise was burning prior to the devastating day of August 13th.

Can the Minister of ECC apprise this House as to why the wildfire near the hamlet of Enterprise was allowed to burn out of control for several days prior to the devastation and evacuation of the residents? Mahsi.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister responsible for Environment and Climate Change.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can assure this House that the wildfire that impacted the community of Enterprise received initial attack and was actioned consistently prior to the disaster of August 13th. The fire was initially identified on August 2nd and an initial attack within two hours. I repeat, two hours.

Within two hours, that grew -- the fire grew from three hectares to 120 hectares with extreme weather conditions that include very strong winds. The fire was actioned by crews and/or aircraft as conditions allowed from the time it was discovered but the extreme fire conditions and extreme fire behaviour made fighting the fire very challenging and limited ability to -- for ignition operations to be completed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister for the all the information that they were fighting the fires prior to. And it's kind of confusing because the fires kind of snuck up to the community on that day, you know, after all the Department of ECC and fire management help have all the necessary tools and information at their fingertips to determine whether wind and wind speed, yet these systems seemed to have failed on that day or just prior to that day.

Can the Minister apprise this House as to why these factors and tools were not taken into account prior to the devastating day? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to state again that the fire was actioned as conditions allowed from start on August 2nd. The tragic event on August 13th were because of the environmental conditions and extreme wind event. Wind gusted higher than forecasted in the area that already had severe drought and burning conditions. Our team worked with the best information available from the beginning of this fire and used the tools and approaches available to us. The unfortunate reality is that we had a perfect storm of buildup of forest fuel, very high drought codes, and extreme wind event, extremely challenging fire behaviour, that resulted in this situation. I recognize the impact that this devastating loss had on the hamlet of Enterprise, and my thoughts are with them. We had been in the community on September 5th and 11th with the senior officials to discuss the fire event on August 13th.

Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to talk to a number of incident commanders, as well as we brought in our old retired firefighters that had dealt with fires in the past and they basically all said the same thing. We were in a situation that was unique to the -- us. They've never seen it before. We've seen disaster -- this fire react; we didn't expect it to do. So we did everything we could. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. And mahsi to the Minister for that. Mr. Speaker, I understand other wildfires at other communities were happening at the same time, and the fire attack crews may have been spread out.

Can the Minister apprise this House why no fire attack crews were at Enterprise although the fire was at their doorstep for days? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fire was more than 30 kilometers away from Enterprise for days before it impacted the community. The fire was closer to Kakisa before this extreme wind event pushed it towards the community of Enterprise, which was further than predicted by models. Aircraft and crews actioned this fire consistently as conditions allowed throughout their response beginning with initial attack on August 2nd. The fire impacted on Enterprise was not a result of crews being spread out, but it was a result of extreme wind event and environmental conditions. This caused the fire to burn at extreme intensity and speed driven by wind which was made worse by severe drought and built up fuel in the environment causing explosive conditions. It is important to note that there are times crews and aircrafts were not able to fight the fire due to smoke and the fast movement of the fires. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, we hear of a couple of brothers from Enterprise, along with other volunteers, putting out fires that were continually flaring up throughout the community of Enterprise after the initial wildfire. They note that there were no ECC fire crews for more than five days to assist and this was well after the main fire tore through the hamlet.

Can the Minister apprise this House as to why no fire crews were available in the community to monitor and fight the fires? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member talked about those two brothers who were helping and, again, I say thank you very much to them for the work that they did there.

Mr. Speaker, after the wildfire hit the community, many of the flare-ups that were associated with this were structural fires. Our wildfire firefighters are not trained in this. That there was very much about structural firefighters that need to do the work there.

While meeting with the hamlet, we are made aware of these concerns and are committed to looking into this in an after-action review. ECC is still working on fires and once the season is complete, the after-action review will be the number 1 priority. So we will be working on it. And some of this -- the challenges that the Member talked about is our wildfire fighters do not fight structural fires. That there is volunteer firefighters or fire crews. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to continue on my colleague's question -- my colleague from Frame Lake's question for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs in regards to the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangement policy through the federal government.

My first question is in regards to airfare, Mr. Speaker.

So here in Yellowknife, the language that was coming out from the government was if you can get yourself on a commercial flight, get to the airport, get on a flight, get out of town, please leave as soon as you possibly can. And so numerous residents did that. They listened to the government. They booked themselves a flight if they could afford to do so, even if they couldn't really long-term sustainably afford to do so, they did it. I have residents who spent rent money on airfare in order to listen to the government, support the government's efforts to evacuate Yellowknife and get out of town. Those residents are now out airfare because they did not sit and wait for evacuation flights. And at the time, here in Yellowknife, the sentiment around town was one of chaos and confusion. There was a lot of miscommunication -- or not miscommunication, but competing communication, residents having to piece together communication and information that was coming out from different levels of government. And so residents did what they could to get out of town and get themselves and their family out of harm's way. And so I'm wondering if this policy speaks directly to recovery of cost for transportation, why will the government not refund the cost of airfare that residents paid for out-of-pocket at the request of this government? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, section 4 of the DFAA deals with the public sector expense eligibility. Section 4(1)(1) is in reference to provincial territorial eligible costs. If a province or a territory provides temporary relocation, shelter, etcetera to residents. The GNWT did provide evacuation support, including transportation, accommodation, and food. And so the GNWT will be making a claim for its cost for those eligible expenses under the DFAA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of being on the ground here in Yellowknife on those days when an evacuation was called. On the evening of Wednesday -- I can't even remember the date now -- August 16th, when it was called, the people who could get on a flight that night, they got themselves on a flight that night. The very next day, thousands of people lined up at Sir John waiting for flights, and if you drove out to the airport after going down and looking at the thousands of people waiting for flights, there were no planes on the ground at the airport. So people were worried. They were concerned. And if a flight came up, they got on it. So while there were on Friday numerous flights available for people, multiple people got up and left town if they could because there was a lot of fear in town. There was a lot of people with kids, with elders, people -- human beings that just wanted to get on a plane and get out of town. For -- what I don't understand there is I understand what the Minister is saying that there were eventually charter flights available but there was a lot of confusion around that, and there was a lot of waiting and a lot of people who wanted to do what they could to get out. So I don't understand why the government can pay for a charter flight but they can't pay for a resident. As we saw with the reentry flights, there was a lot of confusion, a lot of waiting. Some people -- I have some residents who have never received an email back from the reentry registration emails. Luckily, they are back in town. They paid for a flight and they got themselves home, but they had to get back to work, they had to be here so that the rest of us could enjoy their services and they could be here to serve the rest of town. So while people tried to support evacuation flights, it didn't always work out.

But my next question, Mr. Speaker, is in regards to hotels. Residents from Hay River were told get out now, go to Grande Prairie. They got out now. They went to Grande Prairie. They weren't set up and ready for residents yet. Red Cross said to them, go book yourself at a hotel. They later found out they didn't pick the right hotel, so they weren't covered. I have residents who went to the evacuation centre in Edmonton. They waited for five days before they received a hotel. So those are days that residents paid for out-of-pocket but they were following the rules of government. And I know I'm going on a lot, and I could go on more, Mr. Speaker, but I'll leave it there.

Why will the government not repay these costs for our accommodations? Why will the government not repay these costs for airfare for residents? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's going to be a little bit of a longwinded answer. There was a whole bunch of information shared there that seemed to be messy. First of all, let's talk about the line-up. Yes, it was long. We understood that. There was planes. They were trying to get our crews in there. But the second day, as people -- we had people get on the planes that were told to go back home the first day. The second day they got onto the plane. They were able to do that. We had people registering and getting on the planes that way there.

In regards to the question that the Member asked -- there was a couple questions but -- I think there was three, but I will focus on her last one. It was about the Red Cross. I've heard that from other people. I've heard where people got into the host community, Red Cross didn't have them or told them to go find their own, to phone back. So what I'm telling people is to reach back out to us, to get back to us, tell us what happened, and then we will work on that. Because we've had that situation just not in Grande Prairie, we've heard it in Edmonton, we've heard it in other places there. So we're asking people to reach out to us, and we will work on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So what I heard there is that if somebody has registered with the Red Cross and they still had to pay for their own hotel that they can come back to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and seek compensation for the cost of those hotels. And I'm wondering if the Minister can please let me know if I'm right on that, and also who they would contact in order to get that done. Thank you.

Yes, that's correct. The second thing is who to contact, reach out to the department, or give it to yourself as the MLA, reach out to them and then work with us. I can tell you the Member has given me a number of emails, and we've been working on those situations. So please get us those emails because we need to get -- fix this because it was unfortunate that situation happened. We have to rely on our host province, and that's what they did. Some of them had Red Cross to help them there, and they were working on it. So, again, if we missed those things -- and we're going to miss some of those things. Please reach out to us, and we'll work on it. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So that's great news. That's very good news. So anybody in the territory who was registered with the Red Cross, was unable to get a hotel for whatever reason, reach out to your MLA, and we can advocate on your behalf. So that's really good news.

Mr. Speaker, the last question I have is in regards to insurance deductibles. A number of residents quickly learned that insurance policies are not all built the same. Some residents had insurance deductibles waived.

Whereas others had significant, significant, insurance deductibles that they had to pay in order to receive any support from their insurance companies. And so I'm wondering if MACA plans to apply for reimbursement of resident deductibles through the DFAA. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. She's probably not going to like answer. Unfortunately, when people have their insurance, that's the program that they have to do and they have to look into it. Unfortunately, I have insurance and I haven't even looked at mine until after what we've been dealing with. So unfortunately, the disaster financial assistance is last resort. If you have insurance, you need to go to your insurance company. And I am sorry to the residents that have higher deductibles or don't have the same supports, it's unfortunate, but that's the insurance companies that you have to deal with. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, communities are dealing with the unprecedented wildfire crisis gave a lot to the efforts to save their homes, residents, and municipalities, and property. Mr. Speaker, my questions are going to be the Minister Shane Thompson, Environment and Climate Change.

Mr. Speaker, what has been done to recognize the sacrifices made by the communities under evacuation order and the frontline workers who stayed to fight the fire? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister responsible for Environment and Climate Change.

Yes, it's more of a Municipal and Community Affairs question. So we do have a hosting grant available to communities. We have identified communities as evacuation centres, like Fort Simpson was for Kakisa and Jean Marie. The reason we identify these evacuation centres is so that we don't burden the community on there, so. But we've noticed that some of the communities have been working or getting evacuees into the communities. So we did establish a hosting grant, and the communities can apply for the hosting grants on that there. In regards to if he's looking for equipment and that, we are working with the communities on those things as we move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this fire that happened that impacted the residents of the Northwest Territories, including Yellowknife and the smaller communities, in particular Lutselk'e, Dettah, N'dilo, and Fort Resolution, you know, when this evacuation order went ahead, we had evacuees that came to Fort Resolution, that over 105 people there showed up to that community that came in from Fort Smith, Hay River Reserve, Fort Smith Reserve as well, and Yellowknife. So, Mr. Speaker, we -- the communities of Fort Resolution have incurred costs as a result of the additional people coming into the community on accommodations, food security, etcetera. Mr. Speaker, the cost involved with an emergency operation are enormous. The community governments I represent do not have deep pockets. How will the Minister ensure the costs related to the wildfire are not disproportionately placed on municipalities and designated authorities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, like I said, we do have a hosting grant that's up to $40,000. We -- again, that's why we're telling people with evacuation centres there are certain communities that are host friendly and those ones that aren't. We understand that we seen people go into communities, so we provided that. We did -- our superintendent reached out to Fort Res, worked with them. We also had the food security with ITI working with them to see if we needed to do those things. So I can also tell you that I've reached out to the federal government, Indigenous Service Canada, talked about designated authorities and how they're being impacted. These are some of the challenges that we're seeing that we need to get fixed up on. So if it's a designated authority, if they're created by the Indian Act, then we're trying to get the funding for them to help us move forward. So we've reached out to Indigenous Service Canada on that, but we are -- and, again, we did set up a hosting grant this fiscal year because of the situations where people were going to hub communities that were not hosting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The $40,000 grants is just not going to be enough. For our community of Fort Resolution, you know, that community council and the Metis council paid out monies to their evacuees, some -- that all from -- are all scattered across Canada. And also in YKDFN, they spent a lot of money out of their IBAs that they want to see back, and also the community of Lutselk'e. Not including the work that they have done to fire smart the community as the fire would start to happen. They incurred a lot of costs to date. And, Mr. Speaker, they want to see some kind of monies back to their communities. So it's clear we need to improve on our emergency preparedness on both the territorial and local levels. What is the Minister doing to ensure we are better prepared for the next fire that might happen maybe in my region probably next year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So two departments, Municipal and Community Affairs and ECC, are doing an after-action review. So that's part one. We are reaching out to the municipalities, working to see that there. We're also setting up training events. We're looking if there are -- the emergency plan, how it worked, where we can improve on it, set up training, tabletop exercises so people are better prepared on that. We're also working with ECC to come in and work with the communities on their fire smarting -- or their fire smart to the communities. But also when the Member talks about, you know, fire breaks and stuff like that, NWTAC got over $20 million for eight years and communities can work on there. My understanding is the funding doesn't get there next -- until next year, but people that spent money on fire breaks and that, they can hold that this year, and then bring it -- and bring forth those expenses for next year as eligible expenses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've reached out to the Indigenous governments and Dettah and N'dilo, Lutselk'e, and Fort Resolution. I've asked them to provide a letter to me on the costs that they incurred as a result of this fire evacuation that happened. And once I get that information, I will forward it to the Minister to let them know that what we incurred in the communities as a result of the trigger being pulled in this evacuation here in the Northwest Territories.

Having said that, Mr. Speaker, also, you know, the emergency plans for the communities need to happen. Right now, I've approached the Minister about trying to get something going in Fort Resolution because of the fire near Hay River. Also, the community of Lutselk'e, they also need a plan and we need help on that area. So if we don't start fire smarting our communities even this fall, then we're going to have the same problems maybe as early as springtime. Where the fire could be next year. So I guess my question to the Minister is that what can we do to work with the communities to make sure that we have adequate resources provided so that they can make decisions and start fire smarting the communities even as early as this fall? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister responsible for MACA.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess first and foremost, each community should have their own emergency management operation plan. They should have it in place. And if they don't, we as the regional -- our regional staff will be in there working with them. We created five new positions for emergency management. So -- that we can help work with them. One of the after-action review things is that I'm looking at -- we need at least another five more positions at the regional level to do the recovery and work with these communities. So that's part of the conversation that we're having.

In regards to fire breaks and fire smarting the communities, as I said, last -- with the last question is NWTAC has money. Each community of the 29 communities have money that they can access through NWTAC. Unfortunately, the money that NWTAC got, they don't get it until next year from the federal government. But what they have said, and they have worked with the federal government, that they can do the work that needs to be done now. If they want to do -- fire smart the community and reach out to the community -- or NWTAC to see what their share is, what they get from that, and then they can do the work this year and then as of April 1st can then give the invoice to NWTAC and they get reimbursed back that way. So we're all working together for this. And as, again, we are doing an after-action review with MACA and ECC. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Minister Thompson, this is for the ECC department.

Minister Thompson, has the department, ECC, ever considered the impact the existing fire management policy is going to have on our Indigenous language, culture, and way of life? Did the ECC -- I mean, I'm just saying, what I'm trying to say here is that has the department considered the impact the existing fire management policy is having on Indigenous language, culture, and way of life?

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Before we continue, Members, please refrain from using names. Just use the Minister or Members' ridings or department they're in charge of. Minister responsible for Environment and Climate Change.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we take that into account. We have -- our fire crews are very much Indigenous. We work with them. The fire crews and people we brought back were Indigenous. These people have been in the system for 20, 30 years or 40 years, and we've worked with them. I've had conversations with them. We've had -- that they talk about it. In the old days where people would use to -- like, burning was part of the ecology of the landscape. It would then help them regrowth and stuff like that. The problem is if we don't do those things, we get these tinder boxes that are -- that go on forever. And what we've seen in Hay River and that fire that went from Kakisa into Hay River was a tinder box. Within four hours that fire travelled. So these are all these things. We work with Indigenous governments. We have those conversations. And I'm very proud that ECC does have those conversations and the people that we bring back are of Indigenous heritage. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.

Mr. Speaker, the reason why I ask is that anyone who lived and spends time in small communities, they would understand what we're talking about because Indigenous people, they have close connection to the land. You know, we -- it provides and sustain us. And even you, you understand that. Now we use the land for healing. That is the reason why I ask that question, is because we have close connection to the land.

But anyways, Mr. Speaker, the GNWT says it will take seven years for burned land to naturally replenish itself. Does that mean it will take seven years for any lost wildlife to also replenish their numbers given the state of our dwindling caribou herds across the NWT and considering that several caribou herds' habitats have been disrupted this year and in years past, does the GNWT calculate how many caribou and other wildlife are lost annually due to wildfire? How many years for caribou herds to grow back? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was two or three questions in there so I will try to answer which ones they are.

Do we -- if it's seven years, does it have the impact on wildlife? I'd have to get back to the Member on that. I don't know that detail. I don't get into that detail. I understand the importance of fire and what it does to the environment. It's part of the regrowth. It has happened in the past. It used to be part of it, the way of life. I was actually talking to an advisor, an elder who lives on the land, and we talked about, you know, the importance of fire and what it did. And he talked to me about in the old days they used to find areas that were really dry and that and they would burn it so it would be regrowth and that. So we do look into those things. And if the habitat on the caribou, it is an asset, a value. So it's a value to us. We look at that. We try to fight the fires there as best we can because caribou are important, so is their environment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, thank you. Since 2009, we have caribou restriction in place and our people need to know because we do rely on caribou. That's why I'm asking. And this is where they failed to work closely with the traditional knowledge. We do need those people. ECC needs to have to be working with the Indigenous government and traditional knowledge keeper so that they can be informed of what is happening with our caribou, and we do rely on that. So that's why I asked.

And, Mr. Speaker, okay, this is another question that I don't mean to be disrespectful in a time like this, okay. And I know it's too early to ask. And I don't know if MACA can answer me this or Minister of finance. And I want to know how much money have we spent to evacuations, and if all this money was spent to fire breakers, just like my colleague said here, knowing it is going to be dry season with less precipitation, we did -- we did not need to evacuate and respond to the fire as it started -- respond to the fire as it started. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to answer the caribou question. The other one is a different one, and I'll just go on to that later, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to the caribou, the traditional knowledge, we work with our Indigenous governments about caribou. We talk about that. We talk about how we protect it. We talk about the environment. We see where the area is that we need to protect. What we need to do is make sure our caribou survives for generations to come. So it's just not now. Yes, we have had the mobile zone, but that there was what we worked with the Indigenous governments on there. In regards to the complexity of the questions about how much money is spent and that, we're going to have to take that as notice because we still don't have that information, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. A final short supplementary. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you. Yeah, with the climate change here now --

-- sorry, the Minister took that on notice. Yes, I know, but it's taken as notice. So moving on, oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank my colleague from Frame Lake and the Minister for MACA for answering the questions. And I look forward to an after-action review, and I'm happy to hear that the public's involved. Although I just have a few clarifying questions on why exactly the city of Yellowknife evacuation order was issued by the GNWT and what exactly occurred in that very rapid 24-hour period there. So my first question is for the Minister of MACA. Can he explain why all the other communities were community evacuation orders, but the capital region was done by the GNWT, why that was the case? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for MACA.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is probably going to be a little bit of a longer answer, and I apologize to the House, but we need to get the information out there.

The GNWT used the territorial state of emergency. The decision was based on a combination of multiple factors and not one factor. They included starting in May, the NWT had already experienced multiple community evacuations. In one week alone, just before Yellowknife evacuation orders had been issued, Enterprise, Fort Smith, Hay River, Jean Marie, K'atlodeeche First Nation had also learned -- been evacuated and we've also seen the devastation that happened in Enterprise. Very aggressive and unpredicted wildfire behaviour near Yellowknife area was causing significant concerns to certain -- to very knowledgeable firefighters. Previous wildfires had, in fact, critical infrastructure like the fibre optic link, highways, impacted communications and transit corridors. The fire break that was here around Yellowknife today were not in place when those evacuation orders were issued. There were potentially risk to the highway and airport given the current fire conditions. There were many factors that led to Yellowknife evacuations but, ultimately, the right decision was made. Given the same information that I had today from -- or when we did it, I'd do it again twice on Sunday, Mr. Speaker. The city is right from their perspective. The NWT health and social services is right from their perspective. But the GNWT had considered all perspectives. The fire conditions, one road, one airport, system capacity, etcetera. Conversations about what was said are largely irrelevant because of how quickly the situation changed from Sunday to Thursday, the day before the Yellowknife evacuation. But the city did formally ask for assistance with its shelter in place and a scenario for a city evacuation on the 15th, the day before the evacuation order was issued.

Mr. Speaker, NWTHSSA was focusing on the hospital. They had patients there. They had long-term patients. They also had 60 evacuees from Hay River in Fort Smith that they had to get out there. So to do a shelter in place and to set up an evacuation centre, they would not be able to do that. So when the city came to us, we sat there and looked at everything. We looked at every avenue, what the situation was happening, and we made the decision that we had the time to evacuate the community, we'd give the 48 hours to get the community out because the fire was coming. 15 and 11. 85 was burning as well. These situations were occurring. If 15 and 11 connected, that highway would have been closed off. Then we would have problems with the air quality in for our residents. We'd also have the problem of getting -- to use the airport because we were seeing it, and the predictions were that Saturday it was going to hit, and we were going to see all the problems there. So that's why the decision was made moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that answer. And, you know, I appreciate the Minister made the decision, and he stands by it. I guess I'm still a little confused about the jurisdictional question. You know, Hay River has issued multiple evacuations in the last couple years and it's always the town of Hay River. And there is an understanding that's who does it. I don't believe we would ever step in front and evacuate their town without them doing that first, but that's what occurred in Yellowknife. And I'm just wondering, you know, god forbid we ever have an evacuation, whose call is it at the end of the day and is there a reason that the exception was made in Yellowknife?

For all the reasons the Minister just said, it seems to me he could have gone to the mayor, I'm asking you to issue an evacuation order. That's the chain of how we did this everywhere else. So I'm just -- is going forward, that's what we would do, or is it when we evacuate the capital, it's a GNWT decision; is that the current process? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, it's the community. Hay River evacuated that. They called evacuation. What happened there, we declared a state of emergency. We declared a state of emergency not because of just Yellowknife. We had Inuvik being threatened. We had Kakisa. We had Jean Marie. We evacuated Hay River, Fort Smith, and K'atlodeeche First Nation, Enterprise. We were seeing -- we're not like Alberta. We don't have all these aircrafts that we needed and we were sitting there seeing that we needed to get these aircrafts to be able to do that. Part of the evacuation order -- or the state of emergency was to be able for us to get the tools that we needed. So we were able to declare the state of emergency. Then we looked at it. At TEMO, we brought in the federal government. So the process, it starts out local, goes right to the territories, and then we look at the federal or ask our counterparts across the country to work with us. We had a situation where we had the military in with us. We had a situation where we were looking at sheltering in place. That wasn't a viable option. So at that point in time, we declared with the state of emergency. Hay River, Fort Smith, K'atlodeeche, we were not under a state of emergency at that point in time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.