Kevin O'Reilly

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.

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.

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...

Yeah, okay. Thanks, yeah, now I'm really worried. So does Cabinet anticipate anything to bring forward a special warrant or that sort of instrument during the sort of caretaker period between the end of this Assembly and the election of the next Cabinet to help cover firefighting and/or other costs? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the mover of the motion for bringing it forward. I guess, yeah, I too, like my colleague from Yellowknife North, I had no notice whatsoever of this. It only really came up, I think, in your opening remarks for me. So I didn't even have a copy of the motion itself until it was provided to us in the chat function that we're using the platform for us to meet. I don't really have any yeah, I've heard a lot of these kind of concerns. I hear the same from my constituents. I've seen the media reports as well. You know, I don't know what to say. I'm not...

Thanks, Madam Chair. So in my quick review of the disaster finance assistance arrangements that the federal government has to help provincial/territorial governments, it doesn't look like any firefighting costs are eligible for reimbursement, at least under the policy, and that seems to be across the country. Can the Minister confirm that and what we're doing about it as a government? Thanks, Madam Chair.

In favour.

Thanks, Madam Chair. My questions are going to be detailed as well. So thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Speaker. I had a few comments, some of which I may have made in Committee of the Whole, but, yeah, I want the public to know that I'm in Edmonton with my family. I recognize the hardship that the current situation has caused 70 percent of the Northwest Territories residents, but I believe that we need to continue to focus on firefighting and saving the communities, and I want to thank the firefighters, the contractors, the volunteers for the work that they're doing. Of course, I also want to thank the Albertans that have shown us tremendous support here in Alberta and thank...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the mover and the seconder for bringing forward the bill, but the public should know that we received by email exactly one hour before this special sitting. So I really haven't had a lot of time to consider the bill, and I think it's kind of very unusual to get a bill in this manner. Of course, these are very unusual times.

I do share, I think the intent of wanting to improve emergency management, and I think that's a shared value amongst us all and if it isn't, we are not doing our jobs. But I guess I do question about whether this is the right...