Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll start off by saying I heard the Minister of MACA's response in -- to the question provided by the Member for Great Slave, and I kind of wonder if the Minister has had the opportunity to read the fullness of the report and recommendations. And I'll let him answer that. Because recommendation number 4 I have says, very specifically, it says to create one dedicated emergency management agency for the NWT.
So my question specifically, ultimately boils down to, is what analysis did the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs do to create this decision to ignore the recommendation provided by TSI, who is the gold standard in this industry? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So when it comes down to having our own department essentially for emergency management, we have the services available, we have the opportunity to do emergency management, operate emergencies under our current operating system. And what I would say is when I first ran for MLA, one of the things that I was saying through the whole thing is, you know, I believe in fine tuning in what we have. I believe in fine tuning on what we do. And this is exactly my point is that we have the staff, we have the personnel, we have the ability, and we've also had to, you know, also hire essentially more staff with emergencies. You know, we have regional emergency management coordinators throughout the North right now. You know, it's do we want to have a standalone department? And we could hire a deputy minister, we could hire an assistant deputy Minister, but the government felt that we can manage it within our -- sorry, the department figured and we realized we could manage it how we operate right now. I believe that we can do it. You know, my background in emergency services, I may not be like TSI who contracts people in to come in and do these things like myself, but the reality is is this can be done the way we operate now. And if we're all up on quotes, I will steal a quote from the associate professor of the disaster and emergency management of York University said a standalone agency doesn't automatically solve all the issues. There's ways that could be helped by a stronger presence; for instance, of an independent territorial emergency management organization standalone as an agency, he said. So the reality is we can do this with the way we're doing it now with the trained and educated staff that we have now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I didn't hear any analysis. I heard we did an internal, and if the Minister wishes to cherry pick quotes -- which is fine. I mean, it's the nature of the business -- I would hope he'd also spend time on the CBC article where they had two experts say this is the direction this problem is going, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to know how much a dedicated agency would cost. And I'm kind of hoping the Minister would have spent a little time in that 15-minute answer -- or it felt like 15 minutes -- to tell me how much it would cost given the fact that the last major emergency cost this government over $330 million. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. That could have been a written question. But I'll turn to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it's nice to -- for the Member to bring out that article because that's actually where that quote came from, so thank you.
I also will add the department has not specifically pulled out numbers on what it would cost to stand up a department for operating emergencies; however, we wouldn't know what that looks like. If people were around back in the '80s or early '90s, people would remember the Department of Public Safety where Justice was under, fire marshal's office was under, and that's gone. We're now operating the way we operate. So typical government, vicious cycle, build another department again that was already existing. So I don't know. We can find out. I'll ask the department to run some numbers and get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the guidance you provide in the House.
Mr. Speaker, that's the creativity I'm asking for, and that's where I was going with my third question, which is, you know, I'm concerned that that analysis wasn't done. The Minister confirmed it and said he would do it. So thank you for clarifying that.
Mr. Speaker, my final question is built around the decision of no. So who did the department consult with to come up with this final determination. Did they speak to Indigenous governments? Did they speak to other type of territorial leadership? Did they talk to MLAs? Did they write committee for their opinion? I'm trying to find out did they make this sole decision in isolation when they keep sitting around the table saying we're the best, no you're the best. I want to know what independent advice they had that said this is the best idea. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the fine detail that he likes or would want, I will get back to him with that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Colleagues.
Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
