Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to salute the Yellowknife Day Care Association on the recent opening of their new and expanded facility on 52nd Street in the heart of Yellowknife Centre.

The association has been around since 1981, occupying the building on 51st Street that has at times been an RCMP detachment, a government office, and even a liquor store. The association got its eviction notice from ECE in 2016, along with an offer of support to find a new home. Work began on the development of an enlarged and purpose-built daycare with all the client care, programming, and safety...

One of the actions committed to in the response to the Office of the Auditor General's report was to develop a web-based fire training resource centre. Has that action been completed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Office of the Auditor General in paragraph 63 of its report said that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs should take immediate action to reassess whether communities with fire departments meet the requirements under the Safety Act. Can the Minister report on progress under this recommendation? Thank you.

I'm working from memory here about the Office of the Auditor General report that was produced last year. It looked at things like water plant operators and training. It looked at waste disposal, and it looked at fire departments. What it found is that the fire departments are very ad hoc, that there is a need to standardize the operation of fire departments across the NWT. I have not yet heard the Minister talk about whether she is willing to undertake that work.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up those questions which I asked about the fire department in Norman Wells. My question is about whether the department is working on standards for fire departments across the Northwest Territories. I understand that that is not currently in place. Is the Minister taking steps to standardize fire department funding and operations across the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

I am failing to engage the Minister in any sense of urgency on this issue. My understanding is that this community is currently without fire protection. People are obviously worried about what would happen if there was a fire. They are also worried that their insurance may be invalid because there is no operating fire department. Can the Minister assure me that, when she leaves this Chamber, she will go and call the village of Norman Wells and find out how she can assist them to get their fire department back on track?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am appointing myself the honorary Member for the Sahtu, and I have the following questions on the fire department in Norman Wells for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. First of all, could she please update this House on the status of the fire department in Norman Wells? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when we went on our tour, we had the opportunity to speak directly with people in the treatment centres, and housing was the number one topic on their mind after sobriety. Many of them were very concerned about where they were going to live when they came out of the treatment facility and, particularly, that they not return to their living situation that they had been in prior to treatment because they found that it was not constructive. So there is a real desire on the part of people who have gone through treatment to obtain housing on their release.

The other...

Mr. Speaker, now that the Minister has had some time to reflect on how this contract kind of went awry, what are the lessons that she is taking away from this experience?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, all four of the treatment centres that we visited operated on the 12-step model, and as you may know, peer support is critical to the success of the 12-step program.

What I have heard since I came back is that, in even the regional centres, let alone the small communities, people are reluctant to create AA groups, which would be the natural follow-up, because of privacy concerns, which I stated earlier. There really isn't a level of anonymity in a place that has 1,000 people, and not everyone is comfortable sharing the details of their addiction and recovery in...