Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to bring forward an emergency measure that I feel requires immediate attention. In smaller communities throughout the Northwest Territories, when the community residents are faced with unexpected emergencies, the uncertainty of how long the problem will last puts a strain on the whole community.
On Friday, October 17th, the power in Fort McPherson unexpectedly went out around 10 o'clock am and was not restored until 2 o'clock p.m. The power outage shut the whole community down. Also, there was no communication between NTPC personnel and anyone from the community as to why the power went out and the expected timeframe of the power outage.
Mr. Speaker, most communities, if not all, have safety measures in place to protect the residents, especially the most vulnerable with a muster point somewhere in their respective communities. While in Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic, the muster point is in their local schools, both schools are not adequately equipped to house their residents if the emergency happens for a long period of time. The schools in both communities do not have backup generators.
Mr. Speaker, the residents of Fort McPherson were fortunate that this power outage happened during the day, and it was relatively still warm outside. Imagine the panic if this happened at 2 o'clock a.m. and it was minus 30 degrees Celsius weather.
The local health centre staff immediately offered to use their facility as a muster point to take in any elders who may be old within their homes. Mr. Speaker, we must bring assurance to the communities that we are, indeed, looking out for their immediate safety and make measures to equip each community with backup generators in the event of a power outage. Having a facility used as a muster point while they are not equipped to house their residents is pointless. We need to upgrade the infrastructure to meet the needs of our community residents in the event of an unexpected emergency. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Members' statements. Member from Yellowknife North.
