Thank you. I will go back to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you. Yeah, I guess it -- well, because the Deh Cho is in the process of doing the -- of land claim so I am just wondering how that works because -- how does that work that -- if anybody comes and decides they want to lease -- they want to lease some land or they want to set up shop in the community or outside of a community or in around the surrounding community, how does that work? Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there's three things at play here. There's the interim measures agreement. There could be potentially withdrawn lands in the area. And then any application would need to go through the consultation process with the affected Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have no further questions.
Thank you. Is there any further questions? Seeing none, please turn to page 95.
Environment and Climate Change, regulatory assessment and authorizations, $15,238,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Okay, thank you. Moving on to wildlife and forest management beginning on page 98 with information items on page 100 and 102. Are there questions?
I will go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I note that in 2025-2026 we had wildfire hires in the amount of 405, and in 2026-2027, it's projected to be 224. And I am wondering if the Minister can speak to key drivers behind the reduction in wildfire hiring and how ECC is adjusting capacity planning as a result. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will pass that to the director.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the director.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the position count for this activity is actually increased by two, and that's two new positions under that 2 billion trees cost share agreement that we have with the Government of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great slave.
No, happy to be wrong, Mr. Chair, on this one. A completely different topic. I note from the appendices available to Members on the schedules, I should say, in Schedule 7 of the human resources reconciliation, I note that one of the reductions of positions is the education and outreach coordinator. And I recognize that this was assigned to policy and strategic planning but in my understanding and history with the department, it used to be a function of compliance and officer services, which is here under this activity. And so I am wondering if the Minister can speak to the current allotment of educational opportunities that officers are providing to communities, to harvesters, to folks that they're regulating. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I am going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are many educational opportunities within the department and a lot of that work is done regionally. And I think as a department we could probably do a better job of gathering that information and being able to share that data going forward into the future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.
So I think that was kind of a soft commitment, so hooray. And then I guess to that end, is it the expectation, then, for the regional staff to be coordinating all educational opportunities throughout the different regions with the different officers, is there a consistency of effort that is being applied on education and outreach opportunities? Yeah, just if the Minister has a vision I'd love to hear it. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I think it's really important that we track the data around the qualifications of our staff. And certainly, you know, from my time within the department, I was involved in the fire program and I know there's a lot of that information that is maintained within the fire program for certification or for looking at people available to do different roles within that organization. I can say I am not quite as familiar with the wildlife side of the department or waters or land, so I will pass to the deputy minister for a little bit more detail. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I think that one of the things we were talking about recently in the department was better tracking. You know, right now we have officers in every region and in a lot of the communities, and they very much undertake education and outreach, in particular in schools, and just sort of starting to sort of track some of the things that we do there to have a metric to report on.
We also have a climate outreach specialist, and so that's another position that's helping coordinate some of the things we do with the public on a number of fronts.
In terms of the compliance and officer services that was touched on, that area still manages the officer training and the support. So there's consistency there in that aspect through that unit. But it is an area where we've flagged as wanting to collect better metrics going forward in terms of the things we do because we are doing a lot in that space. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, you know, I will note that I was excited to see the regional operations ADM out of Fort Smith be created a few years back. I am hopeful that, yeah, consistency of effort throughout the regions and throughout compliance actions is top of mind for the Minister and that all officers are sort of –- I realize there's standard operating procedures and there's how they do their jobs, and enforcement is very regimented and appropriate but how they educate maybe perhaps not as much. And that's really what I am looking for today is sort of a -- for the Minister to take away that part of the compliance triangle and sort of maybe not -- standardize maybe not be the best word but just to have that consistency of effort. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I mean, from -– I will once again go back to my time within the department and the fire program primarily, and that was sort of an approach that was taken from forest management division of having consistency across all of the regions so that when you went region to region it was like working at home, everything was essentially the same, you know, right down to things as simple as, you know, designs of crew buildings so that they were all under the same design. So very similar here. I think it's important that we train our staff from the perspective of this is a territorial resource and our staff could work anywhere within the Northwest Territories. So to have them all trained at the same level I think is a very important key to success and certainly support that direction. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the two minutes I have left I am curious, numbers of staff. Can ECC -- can the Minister explain the goals they have for hiring for the upcoming firing -- for the upcoming wildfire season, if they're meeting their targets, if they're feeling confident about what they expect for this season upcoming. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, typically the hiring cycle, if you will, for the upcoming season starts about this time of year as we start to advertise. Over the next number of weeks we'll send out recall letters for our different seasonal staff to get indications and commitments that they are -- do intend to plan to come back for another season. Certainly, I think over time there have certainly been some areas within the fire program that have been a little tougher to fill positions in, and primarily wildland firefighters being one area that, you know, we've struggled a little bit. But I think we're certainly optimistic that, you know, we're going to get a good turnout and have many of our seasoned staff returning for the upcoming season. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And sort of my last question on this topic. Can ECC provide an update on the ongoing work to update the community wildfire plans, where we are with that work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The community wildfire protection plans are an activity that's undertaken with all of the forested communities over the winter, so that would involve 28 communities each year. And the community wildfire protection plans, we have staff that goes to the community. We'll meet with all of the affected groups within that community, bring forward -- they'll bring forward their plan. ECC will provide support and advice on plan -- on the plan and work with them to identify required resources for the communities to successfully implement those community wildfire protection plans. And 28 community wildfire protection plans were updated in 2019 and all remain ready for action should the need arise. One was fully updated in 2025. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Is there any further questions?
Member from the Deh Cho.
We're still on 100 and 101, correct? Okay, the question I have is fire damage compensation, 100 grants available to hunters or trappers to replace equipment lost as a result of forest fires. Can you tell me how many people have applied for it last year. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you. So I can go back and give you data for a couple of years. So 55 claims totaling $990,670 were received for the 2023 wildfire season. For 2024 wildfire season, five claims were received for $89,436. In the 2025-2026 fire -- oh, harvesters disaster assistance, sorry. There's no data on 2025-2026. We're still compiling that data.
I can give you numbers on the harvesters disaster assistance program. So for 2025-2026, no claims under this program were submitted. In 2024-2025, two claims were submitted. And in 2023-2024, we provided $700,000 to support harvesters after the Peel River flood. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Deh Cho.
Okay. Those numbers will be somewhere. So it's just for harvesters. It's not so much for people that just have cabins out on the land?
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so the program is designed to support people that have some level of income from that activity. So whether it's from -- you know, trapping I will use as an example. A certain percentage of their income would need to come from that to be eligible for the program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have any further questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there any further questions? Okay, please turn to page 99.
Environment and Climate Change, wildlife and forest management, $81,601,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. There are additional information items on pages 103 to 111. Are there any questions? None. Moving on. Thank you.
Members, please return now to the department summary found on page 73 with information items on pages 74 to 80. Are there any questions? Seeing no further questions, committee, I will now call on the department summary.
Environment and Climate Change, operations expenditures, total department, 2026-2027 Main Estimates, $145,745,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
