Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all of the committee for your precious time. I will speak and then I will ask Ms. Saryeddine to answer questions, as well, if that works. Thank you for inviting the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs here today. For the record, my name

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Shields. At the risk of not being coherent on this, when we talk to our indigenous leaders, there is a construct that happens in these communities whereby the structure of paying for this is complicated and is such that there is not a lot of oversight. Couple that

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Shields. Yes, I think your comments are spot-on. We would refer back to the collaboration with the indigenous leaders. All these communities are very different. They have very complex issues, and one-size-fits-all is not there. I think you're spot-on with it, but

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I may, I'm going to turn it over to my very brilliant executive director, Tina, to answer that question.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Tina, do you want to speak to this? Go ahead.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's an excellent question. In my province here, we see that differential or that gap. We've had 59 fire deaths in this province in 2021. A significant number of those fire deaths, unfortunately, were in indigenous communities. I think it really has to go hand in glove with help

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't know that answer. I know we do it in some provinces. We do it in this province. I don't believe it reaches the indigenous communities to the extent that it does in smaller communities in this province. It's a gap, sir.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, there is, and the fire service in general is changing to meet the climate changes we're experiencing. Again, it's in these smaller communities, to have people in the communities investing in their learning and their preparedness for this. It does happen. The FireSmart strat

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I apologize. I lost my French when I was eight years old, when I left Gatineau.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, sir. Yes, we have. I don't think that's strictly just with indigenous communities. This is a learning curve for the provinces and the federal government to work together on right across this country, although it's a provincial responsibility on the wildfires. It is a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, it's vital. The only functional way to deal with an emergency response related to fire is to have the equipment ready. A fire truck has water in it and you can't leave it outside, especially in Arctic temperatures. Without water, it's not going to serve you. Fun

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, we do. As the national body, we work through the leaders of the territories and provinces and such. We assist them so that it actually touches all three levels of government. We believe that we're a trusted adviser for the federal government in this regard. We w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I am stumped as to how to help you. We're working with our indigenous leaders in the fire service through the national body now, and these are all-too-common comments before us. I can assure you that our time together here will go back through Ms. Saryeddine and back to our indig

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If you don't mind, Tina, I'll start and pass it on. What has been explained to us, if I understand them correctly, by the indigenous fire marshals' leadership, is that, in some of these communities, they don't receive funding until the project is done. There is a need for the ba

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's one element of it that's been explained to us, yes. Tina, is there anything you can add to that?