Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We recognize it as a very good program. Just this year we've invested $6.9 million in various components of the Fire Smart program—education, training, getting rid of dry vegetation around communities, and interoperability between the community, the provincial government, and firefighters.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With respect to the actual on-the-ground stuff, the lessons learned event will tell us more. When I was mentioning earlier the formal undertaking for lessons learned, there will be, and there is at the moment, someone from the provincial government, with funding from the department, meeting with all affected communities to get their experience on the ground.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The plan occurs at the community level. It should be a community level emergency management plan, and each community should have one of those. That should indicate how they fit into the larger construct, to seek assistance, if needed.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's an emergency management—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll add that there is a national emergency management plan for first nations. It is on our departmental website, but it quickly drills down into regional plans that are jurisdiction by jurisdiction, as I described, so yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's by design. We are looking to have the communities having services comparable with those of other communities within a jurisdiction. That is part of the design of the plan: not to create an emergency management system just for first nations. We want them to receive comparable services.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  On that, I was just explaining that if it had been first nations, then it would 100% reimbursed. If not, these are the types of services that would be eligible under the disaster financial assistance arrangements from Public Safety as a reimbursable cost. That is something that is eligible because they're hosting a community that is eligible.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. I would say that we have about three buckets of situations. We have five formal agreements. We have them with Yukon, P.E.I., Northwest Territories, British Columbia, and Alberta. We have another bucket where provinces step up and support first nations regardless of whether there's a formal agreement in place.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Saskatchewan is one province where we do not yet have a formal agreement in place. We're in the process of having discussions with first nation leadership as well as the province to put something in place. That being said, the Province of Saskatchewan does support the response and recovery related to events that occur on reserve.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That one I could look into specifically. Typically, an emergency measures organization within a jurisdiction like a province would do an after action or a lessons learned event, but I can check specifically for Saskatchewan and get back to the committee on the process itself, if you wish.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When we looked at the options of a service provider to work with, one of the reasons we took the Red Cross was cultural sensitivity. They do this internationally and go into situations and have that cultural sensitivity and awareness, and where they don't have it, they build it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The comment I'll make is that the department does reimburse emergencies related to first nations on reserve, and that's up to 100% of reimbursement through our terms and conditions. It is extremely good that first nations communities are hosting other first nations, and that's one of the lessons learned—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We are very concerned about the number of evacuees. That's why we mentioned it as well and we track it very closely. We take a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction approach working with the provincial government, in some cases having emergency service agreements with them. In other cases, such as Manitoba, which you mentioned, we don't have an agreement with the provincial government but we've put in place a mechanism through the Canadian Red Cross where they're working with first nations on the preparedness aspects that I mentioned, the planning, the training.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We continue to discuss with the provincial governments.