Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'll be continuing on with more questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
So in its response, rejecting a recommendation to set up a dedicated stand-alone emergency management agency, the government has claimed that the current structure is very strong because it operates independently from day-to-day departmental bureaucracy, it's shielded from political interference, and it facilitates timely decisions based on the best available information. And yet the after-action review actually found that the current structure has led to political interference and delays in decision-making, confusion about responsibilities, lack of clarity about objectives, and resource constraints.
So my question: If the GNWT will not consider setting up a stand-alone emergency management agency, does the Minister have concerns about the current reporting structure where the incident command system reports ultimately to the MACA Minister since this can create danger of political interference or delays? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be clear, the after-action review brought out the issues that happened during that time. From that time forward, the government has taken steps to correct some of those and has been working since that time. The after-action review brought out a lot of the concerns that even I had. So to say that that's happening right now is not exactly correct. So some of the things that have been brought out may have been corrected before this after-action review has been released, some of which is what the Member is speaking about right now.
So the EMO organizations throughout the Northwest Territories use an ICS system, so the Incident Command System. That does not report to the Minister. What this structure does, it allows all your trained personnel to get together to make educated, you know, responses for that type of emergency, because every emergency is different.
What happens then is the recommendation may be put forward to the Minister for something like a territorial state of emergency. So it's only a recommendation that ultimately goes to the Minister. Decisions are made by trained personnel using the ICS system. And this is a common system throughout Canada.
So, you know, in the past where there may have been some political interference, that happening now is highly unlikely due to the amount of training that we've been doing. ICS training has been done at every level of the government, including us as bureaucrats. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So it sounds, though, that the Minister is saying that recommendations are being made by the incident command, but decisions are ultimately made by the Minister. Has the Minister already examined -- or perhaps changes have already been made that he can explain -- but how the lines of command during a state of emergency can be shortened and restructured to be more independent of the Minister's office? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The current structure already separates from the political side. The decisions are all made within the ICS system, and when it comes down to a Minister making a decision, it's through the legislation on what type of decision that may be. So sometimes it's signing off on an emergency evacuation order that a local state of emergency that has been declared. So it's not the Minister making the decision; it's following the recommendations of the trained staff. So basically the Minister's role is limited to making statutory declarations if a local state of emergency or something like that has been made. The Minister is not responsible for making decisions for the evacuation -- or for the emergency. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So has the Minister or the department done an analysis of what differences exist, if any, between the NWT system and stand-alone emergency management agencies elsewhere? And if there are differences in roles or gaps that can be found, how we might be able to change or rearrange or reassign current people that we have working within our system to make it more similar to the functions of stand-alone emergency management agencies elsewhere? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure everybody's aware over this last year what every province and territory has gone through, even just this last year. You know, and a lot of the problems that have been happening down south are similar to what we've been dealing with. So we really have to look at what we're doing with a standard, not with what other departments or what other agencies are doing, because it may not work up here. So every emergency is different. Every situation is different. That's why we follow the Incident Command System which is a standard. And it's important to follow that standard so that we are similar, operating-wise, to the other provinces and territories. Every emergency is going to be different, and how we operate during those emergencies all relates to the people that are trained in those positions to make those difficult decisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
