Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Next, we have Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. The motion has been made. The motion is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion, Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as summer approaches, concerns over this year's fire season start to emerge. We are already seeing conditions getting dry, so the chances of having a busy fire season are higher. Last year, Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic experienced a few local fires, but luckily, the wind pushed them away from the communities. Mr. Speaker, my constituents are concerned about the current status of firebreaks in their communities. Over the last few years, we have observed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources put the onus of fire smarting on communities. This...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I know this came up mostly here in the southern part of the territory, not too much up in the northern section. As, you know, for the most part, these are the early days of legalization; there wasn't really an issue. Well, really, I've never even heard it mentioned, the need for programming or anything like this. Moving forward, possibly, I'm sure that's why the government wanted to put this under the liquor stores at the start of this process, to ensure that businesses and people didn't fail trying to get into this business. The way the government sees it is...

Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a little difficulty supporting this motion because, in our community visits, I didn't hear that communities wanted licensed establishments. Actually, there are two people who kind of felt that that encouraged or maybe sent the wrong message to our youth, which I see where they're coming from on this. Maybe further down the line this may be all right, but for now, I find it difficult to support this one because of what I heard in the communities. You know, it may be different here in Yellowknife, but the smaller communities feel that this is an issue. So...

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Next on the list, we have Ms. Green, then Mr. Vanthuyne. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Like many of the Members, it was great to visit the communities and hear the communities' concerns on the bill. For many of the communities that we visited, the residents, this is the first time they heard that legalization was going to be pushed forward for July 1st, was the date we are given, possibly as early as June 21st, but the date we were given was July 1st.

Many residents were asking us, why are you forcing this upon us, like it was committee that was bringing this forward, and we had to make it quite clear that this is a direction that was given to the Department...

The fund that the Minister is talking about is in the neighbourhood of $30,000 per community. There is not very much fire smarting you could do for that amount. Maybe a couple of weeks of work or a month at the most, but Mr. Speaker, I will just leave that there and find another route to that. I will ask the Minister a different question. Are there plans to encourage people to pick mushrooms in my riding where we had a large fire last year, like they did here in Yellowknife? They did a lot of promotion in this area for mushroom pickers. Will that be done in my riding as well?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a follow-up to my Member's statement; I am hoping the Minister heard parts of it. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier in my statement, we had a large fire in my riding last year. We are fortunate there was no damage to any infrastructure in the community or the water plant in Fort McPherson. I would like to ask the Minister: what is ENR's plans for fire prevention in the Mackenzie Delta this year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.