Mr. Speaker, the territory's 2025 wildfire season was a challenging one. With 201 wildfires and nearly 1.4 million hectares burned, this was one of the most active wildfire seasons in Northwest Territories' history.
I want to acknowledge the tireless dedication, personal sacrifice, and incredible teamwork of our staff. Wildfire crews showed up day after day to protect our territory. These efforts deserve the recognition and appreciation of this House. Fire seasons in the NWT used to last 8 to 10 weeks each summer. But with climate change in recent years, we have seen crews and fire personnel actively responding to fires for five straight months, from May until October.
Mr. Speaker, this season marked the fourth in a row with prolonged drought conditions, creating extreme fire behaviour, causing some fires to burn nearly a meter underground. Our air crews, ground personnel, and support teams held, brought under control, or put out more than 100 fires this year. And most importantly, no one was hurt, and no homes were lost in our communities thanks to the hard work of wildfire responders. Carefully planned ignition operations in communities like Gameti, Whati, and Fort Providence successfully stopped wildfire spread.
Mr. Speaker, after the 2023 wildfire season, the government made changes to improve how we fight fires based on the recommendations from operational review. In response to that review, we began using new fire behaviour tools to provide timely, accurate forecasts and to support safer, more effective wildfire operations across the territory. We are continuing to send more staff to complete advanced fire behaviour training, which will strengthen our forecasting and modeling capacity to meet the challenges ahead.
Mr. Speaker, building Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI preparedness, was also a key theme in last year's review, and this year, we saw those investments pay off. We launched new basic WUI response training for smaller fire departments to increase capacity with sprinkler setup and structure triage. We also developed interim deployment guidelines for municipal fire departments supporting wildfire events.
In Whati and Fort Providence, local fire departments put this training into action working side-by-side with wildfire professionals to successfully defend their communities.
And the communities of Fort Smith, Hay River, and Fort Simpson used resources to support wildfire response, applying lessons learned from past wildfire experiences, and through GNWT training to help residents in neighboring communities.
Structure protection trailers supported efforts in Wrigley, Fort Liard, Jean Marie River, and areas along the Liard Highway. Two new trailers added this year have the capacity to protect nearly 200 homes and buildings across the NWT.
Mr. Speaker, this has been a difficult wildfire year across the country. While the severity of next year's season is uncertain, the GNWT remains focused on investing in readiness and resilience to help ensure our communities are safe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Ministers' statements. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
