Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s been since 2007 that there’s been a fire crew there. So yes, we will have our folks and the deputy will arrange to make sure there are discussions with Tsiigehtchic about the upcoming fire season. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We accept. We’ll follow up with Mr. Bromley. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree that we’re going to be challenged more and more to try to anticipate the plan for the future. Prevention, as the Member indicates, is one thing; mitigation and adaptation are going to be the other two. So this particular division has a role to play, but if we’re going to link all the pieces not only in this department but other departments that have that prognostication function and as we move through Managing this Land and other committees that we have, that type of work and the budgeting side as well as we project our fire costs, for example, and costs that...

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re in year four of drought, and cycles could go four to five years. So I agree with the Member, I’ve been making the same observations based on just what we’ve seen from lack of major fall rains to the snow pack this year and the fact that we’re in such deep drought, it will take a significant amount of snow to affect that and we anticipate it could be a long, hot summer.

We learned last fire season, which was by far and away the biggest we’ve ever had, on the need to recruit internally in the Northwest Territories. We can’t rely on southern resources because they...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Thaidene Nene has been identified as a priority that we want to move on as a government post-devolution with northern tools. There’s been significant contact with the federal government indicating our interest in a small federal footprint complemented and supplemented by an array of northern tools that may be there, things like territorial parks, conservation areas, wilderness areas, special study areas, those types of options. We’ve been actively working with Lutselk’e now for a number of months. We’ve compressed, I believe, about 18 months or two years of normal...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to the Member for his offer of working with us in the community. We will be following up. Thank you.

A lot of work has been done in this area and we’re in the process of getting a document ready to bring to Cabinet and then on to committee that will show all the work that’s been done across the Northwest Territories. In terms of the ecological representative areas and the mapping and inventory that’s done, I would ask the deputy, Mr. Chairman, with your approval, to add a little bit further to that, if he would. Thank you.

As far as I’m aware, all the communities have their fire protection plans, and it’s just an issue now between the communities and ENR and individuals in looking at implementing them. Once again, we are fiscally challenged, as well, so we don’t have a big, significant amount of money put aside that’s going to allow us to go and take on that full cost of going to every community in the boreal forest on our own as an ENR initiative. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, that work has yet to be done and the Lands department is going to be picking up that coordination and lead in terms of pulling together the various pieces, working with all the other, once again, appropriate departments and will work at that context. The Member’s correct; there’s work done and the Dehcho Land Use Plan is quite a ways along. The two areas are the North Slave and South Slave with the NWT Metis as well as Akaitcho, or what’s there of the Akaitcho. Salt River is no longer part of that. But the Member’s correct; that work has yet to be done. Thank you.