Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great slave.

No, happy to be wrong, Mr. Chair, on this one. A completely different topic. I note from the appendices available to Members on the schedules, I should say, in Schedule 7 of the human resources reconciliation, I note that one of the reductions of positions is the education and outreach coordinator. And I recognize that this was assigned to policy and strategic planning but in my understanding and history with the department, it used to be a function of compliance and officer services, which is here under this activity. And so I am wondering if the Minister can speak to the current allotment of educational opportunities that officers are providing to communities, to harvesters, to folks that they're regulating. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I am going to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are many educational opportunities within the department and a lot of that work is done regionally. And I think as a department we could probably do a better job of gathering that information and being able to share that data going forward into the future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.

So I think that was kind of a soft commitment, so hooray. And then I guess to that end, is it the expectation, then, for the regional staff to be coordinating all educational opportunities throughout the different regions with the different officers, is there a consistency of effort that is being applied on education and outreach opportunities? Yeah, just if the Minister has a vision I'd love to hear it. Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I think it's really important that we track the data around the qualifications of our staff. And certainly, you know, from my time within the department, I was involved in the fire program and I know there's a lot of that information that is maintained within the fire program for certification or for looking at people available to do different roles within that organization. I can say I am not quite as familiar with the wildlife side of the department or waters or land, so I will pass to the deputy minister for a little bit more detail. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.

Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, you know, I will note that I was excited to see the regional operations ADM out of Fort Smith be created a few years back. I am hopeful that, yeah, consistency of effort throughout the regions and throughout compliance actions is top of mind for the Minister and that all officers are sort of -- I realize there's standard operating procedures and there's how they do their jobs, and enforcement is very regimented and appropriate but how they educate maybe perhaps not as much. And that's really what I am looking for today is sort of a -- for the Minister to take away that part of the compliance triangle and sort of maybe not -- standardize maybe not be the best word but just to have that consistency of effort. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I mean, from -- I will once again go back to my time within the department and the fire program primarily, and that was sort of an approach that was taken from forest management division of having consistency across all of the regions so that when you went region to region it was like working at home, everything was essentially the same, you know, right down to things as simple as, you know, designs of crew buildings so that they were all under the same design. So very similar here. I think it's important that we train our staff from the perspective of this is a territorial resource and our staff could work anywhere within the Northwest Territories. So to have them all trained at the same level I think is a very important key to success and certainly support that direction. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the two minutes I have left I am curious, numbers of staff. Can ECC -- can the Minister explain the goals they have for hiring for the upcoming firing -- for the upcoming wildfire season, if they're meeting their targets, if they're feeling confident about what they expect for this season upcoming. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, typically the hiring cycle, if you will, for the upcoming season starts about this time of year as we start to advertise. Over the next number of weeks we'll send out recall letters for our different seasonal staff to get indications and commitments that they are -- do intend to plan to come back for another season. Certainly, I think over time there have certainly been some areas within the fire program that have been a little tougher to fill positions in, and primarily wildland firefighters being one area that, you know, we've struggled a little bit. But I think we're certainly optimistic that, you know, we're going to get a good turnout and have many of our seasoned staff returning for the upcoming season. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And sort of my last question on this topic. Can ECC provide an update on the ongoing work to update the community wildfire plans, where we are with that work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The community wildfire protection plans are an activity that's undertaken with all of the forested communities over the winter, so that would involve 28 communities each year. And the community wildfire protection plans, we have staff that goes to the community. We'll meet with all of the affected groups within that community, bring forward -- they'll bring forward their plan. ECC will provide support and advice on plan -- on the plan and work with them to identify required resources for the communities to successfully implement those community wildfire protection plans. And 28 community wildfire protection plans were updated in 2019 and all remain ready for action should the need arise. One was fully updated in 2025. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. Is there any further questions?

Member from the Deh Cho.