Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 18, An Act to Repeal the Settlements Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Fire Prevention Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We are currently conducting a community fire department capacity assessment. That’s us working with the communities and coming up with a needs analysis that will do for each community. Some of the items that the Member pointed out would be part of that. Obviously, we can’t have volunteer fire departments, especially in some of the smaller communities that are untrained and unable to operate a lot of equipment that’s expected of them. So with the new public safety division and the commitment made by the fire marshal’s office to work with each community, I think we are going to see a dramatic...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We appreciate the Member’s frankness when he asks a question. He just gets straight to the point. The community governments are responsible for the firefighting infrastructure. They are given the money through the capital investment and they do have the responsibility. Our department will work with the communities in identifying some of their needs and possibly help out with the cost to them and finding out where they can access some of this equipment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Later today, at the appropriate time, I will be giving notice of motion for first reading of An Act to Repeal the Settlements Act.

The political development of the Northwest Territories has been dramatic since the establishment of responsible territorial government in 1967. One of the critical elements to our development has been the empowerment of communities to run their own affairs based on local resources, priorities and conditions.

As many Members of this Assembly know from their personal experience, the opportunity to be elected to sit on a community council has...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, November 1, 2010, I will move that Bill 19, Municipal Statutes Amendment Act, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, November 1, 2010, I will move that Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Dog Act, be read for the first time.

My understanding is there were a couple of members of the public safety division office up in Tuk just recently. We’ll continue to work with the communities to identify their needs. If they have equipment that needs replacing, as I stated earlier, we will work with the community in trying to identify the best places.

There’s also, and I saw it firsthand at a public meeting that I went to amongst the Beaufort leaders, where one community had offered equipment to another community free of charge. So there’s that opportunity there. It’s just equipment that they had a surplus of and they felt one...

With the new public safety division coming onboard, that is one of their mandates. I have had commitment from the assistant fire marshals that they are more than willing to work with each community in identifying some of their needs, some of the training that they may lack. There is talk of going to more of a regional type of training so we can get more people in. So the commitment is there to work very closely with the communities.

We understand that it’s a very difficult job they have, especially in some of the smaller communities. It’s a very difficult job. So we will do our part as the...

Mr. Speaker, when we talk about hard work of people in the Chamber, I think we have to recognize our hardworking interpreters and, with that, I’d like to recognize Lillian Elias, our Inuvialuktun interpreter from Inuvik.