Will the Minister commit to transferring superintendent of the North Slave position to Behchoko? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No.
I will go back to the Member from Monfwi.
I want to ask the Minister why.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. The regional superintendent for the North Slave covers the whole North Slave region, so it works out of Yellowknife and goes to the communities, smaller communities around Yellowknife and the entire North Slave. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Monfwi.
At one time I know Tlicho region was part of Fort Smith region, and now it's part of North Slave region, so I don't see any issue having this position transferred to Tlicho region and can still serve my colleague Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh's riding too as well. So it could be done. Why are they hesitant to move that position to Tlicho region? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, the superintendent covers the whole North Slave region, which, I mean, you can fly out of Yellowknife to get to all the other communities in the North Slave region, and it's more central. So thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Is there any further questions from Members? Seeing none, please turn to page 347.
Municipal and Community Affairs, directorate, $5,610,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to Energy Management, beginning on page 350 with information items on page 352. Are there any questions? No further questions, please turn to page 351.
Municipal and Community Affairs, emergency management, $2,597,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to public safety, beginning on page 353 with information items on page 355 and 356. Are there any questions?
I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I first wanted to ask about ground ambulance. I know that many -- there are some communities with ground ambulance and many without. And in some communities there is not any way for someone to, say, get to a health centre if they have an emergency or a problem at home or somewhere else. What is MACA doing to try to work with communities who might be interested in establishing some sort of either ground ambulance or just emergency transport system? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Yeah, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we've been working with the department of health to try to come up with a plan for some of the smaller communities where services are not provided in a way of having a pre-facility transport service to a nursing station or a health cabin. So we have kind of plans in place or visions in place, whether that can fruition is the next thing and how we can go about it. But we're still working on this. We're still working together with the department on having a plan in place for the communities with no ground ambulance service. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just to clarify, is the plan to come up with sort of one overarching strategy or something in collaboration with HSS, or are you just working community by community in terms of what the specific needs might be on the ground on a case-by-case basis? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. It would be essentially -- well, there's an overarching idea; it's whether or not the community capacity can support that and that's, I would say, the key thing there, is there has to be some community supports from the members to provide, you know, essentially the service. And the goal here is hopefully for the government to provide equipment and support the community in a pre-facility transport. The communities essentially that are already established, there's goals of supporting that already, and we have some funding available for them that are already provided. But, overall, the pre-facility transportation, we're working on that right now. So thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So does MACA provide, like first aid training so that people can become trained as basic emergency responders or -- like what specifically does MACA have to offer, or if a community comes forward can you just give them funding to start up a service like this? Like, what do you have to offer if the community is interested in wanting to get this up and running? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So if everything works out here, there will be an increase to training funds for communities for emergency services and part of that the ability to use that for first aid training in the communities and that can be arranged, you know, with the community so that they can train local people to do first aid and, hopefully, at some point being able to use those individuals to be part of this pre-facility transport. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. I also wanted to ask about the Office of the Fire Marshal. Let me just go to the business plan. Here we go.
So in the business plan, there's mention of a program evaluation for the Office of the Fire Marshal. And I am not clear from this chart, has the program evaluation been completed already or is it just starting? It's saying data collection to inform full review by January 2026, and I wasn't clear if the evaluation is to be complete by January 2026 or ready to start. Can the Minister clarify? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will ask the deputy minister to answer this. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So under the government renewal initiative, there was a review completed of the fire inspection program, which is one area of the Office of the Fire Marshal. And one of the recommendations that came out of that review was that they should undertake a full review of their office, all responsibilities under the Office of the Fire Marshal. That work is not completed and is currently in procurement to hire someone to do that work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. I appreciate that clarification. Do you have a sense of when that program evaluation will be complete, then? A timeline. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's going to be within this calendar year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you. And so from the GRI review that was already done, there was a number of recommendations about the fire inspection program, at least. What is MACA doing to implement those existing recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will ask the deputy minister to answer this. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so for the fire inspection review, one of the big things that was noted was that we're currently not meeting the requirements of the program. We didn't have enough resources to do so. We have added another deputy fire marshal to support getting more inspections done. And one of the other things that was noted was that, really, in order to look at the fire inspection program, we need to look at the resources that are available across all areas and that's why we're going to a larger review. So once that larger review is done, we'll start implementing other recommendations as well, and we thought it best to do it as a whole rather than piecemeal some of the recommendations there. So thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. And so the new deputy fire marshal position, was that just implemented in 2025-2026; can you just remind us. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it was, and currently it's being filled by a person in Fort Simpson. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is there anything to report yet in terms of an increase in the number of inspections that the office is able to carry out or an increase in services as a result of adding that position last year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
