Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ECC.
What criteria does the Department of Environment and Climate Change use to determine when a wildfire poses sufficient risk to warrant evacuation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Minister of ECC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the wildfire management policy, there's a number of criteria that are looked at and every fire that is detected, a new fire gets some form of action. So there's -- some of the factors that come into play are location of the fire, available resources, proximity to values, proximities to communities. So as these fires start on the landscape, the fire experts within the department take a look at the current situation. They go out, a fire assessment is done. That information is then taken and put into an initial action plan which is used to determine whether or not that fire receives an initial response, a sustained action response. And that really depends on, like I said, many of the factors that I recently raised. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, how did the department work with the Department of MACA and the community of Fort Providence to determine when to issue the community evacuation order? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, environment and climate change does daily assessments of all fires and specifically ones that are a threat to values or communities. Those daily assessments, that information is gathered. There are multiple joint agency meetings that take place daily where that information is relayed to all invested parties. MACA would work closely with the community in deciding when the actual evacuation event would take place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Final supplementary. Member from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given that information, what improvements is the department making to its wildfire detection assessment and response protocols to prevent delays in evacuation orders and to better protect communities from imminent wildfire threats? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after the 2023 after-action review, there was 25 recommendations that were received by the department, all of which were accepted in principle. So some of the major points I'd like to raise here, work that's ongoing has increased:
We've increased the number of fire crews, aircraft equipment available across the NWT.
We're mobilizing crews and aircraft earlier in the season to complete training ahead of the earlier start to the wildfire season.
We're conducting aerial surveys and thermal imaging to detect and address holdover fires at the beginning of the season to ensure we're ahead of those;
Hiring a dedicated safety officer to ensure that the physical and mental health of our staff is top of mind;
Installing backup communication networks to ensure that we have operational capability and if we run into a similar incident like we did in 2023 when our internet cable went down.
We established new qualification and certification standards for wildfire response.
We're expanding the GNWT's internal capacity to deliver the Incident Command System.
We're cross-training between structural and ECC firefighters to enhance coordination of the wildland urban interface; and,
We've significantly improved our communication with community leadership and with other departments within our government and others.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of ECC. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
