Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That is a good unique situation. I know that our department treats each indigenous or municipal government the same way in terms of resources. Sometimes we hear some anecdotal information after the fact. We will work with justice on it. We will work with other departments, other ministers.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I would say we registered 384 homes as having been impacted by the disaster. Again, any communication we can get from the federal government, if it wishes to share it with us or with the residents, would be great. When I say “us” it's the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, MP McLeod. I think the resources should be closer. I would love to see something in Inuvik, for the Beaufort Delta and the sea area there, especially with climate change, but also having something in Yellowknife would be very beneficial as well. There used to be an army barracks in Inuvik, and it was taken away.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I totally agree. It's a unique situation, because rangers are very much about certain things; the military is about certain things. I think it was you or one of the other members who talked about not having the RCMP in all the communities. What we try to do sometimes, if we're able to get enforcement, which are our lands officers, our transportation officers and our ENR officers, is that we help them to be in the communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, I should say that there was no disrespect intended in my answer. I totally understood what your question was. I greatly appreciated it. We're unique in the Northwest Territories, because we actually work with our indigenous governments. They are very much a part of our role and how we work in there.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would say that the consultation is through us as the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. We are the lead. We work with them. We do reach out with the federal government through CIRNAC and Public Safety Canada, and as well with the two reserves. We have a relationship that way.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Quickly, to be really succinct, it would be more money for the ability to mitigate and adapt our communities and to understand that sometimes the disaster system policy should let us have the ability to work ahead of schedule. In other words, let's say we see a need for camps in a community.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Michael. Yes, I have a number of ideas, but I think the most important thing is that the federal government needs to work with the territorial government to go and teach communities that are impacted and then talk to them. You may have seen in the news, Michael, about the bank erosion in Fort Simpson.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I'll probably agree to disagree. I agree that it is having an impact on indigenous governments. In the Northwest Territories, like I said, three to four times the national average, we are being impacted. We are living climate change. We are dealing with it. We are dealing with these issues.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Michael. Just as a little history, Michael used to be my boss way back when, so he can smile and.... In regard to Michael's question here, training and resources are much needed. We do as much training as we can. We work with municipal governments. Again, in the Northwest Territories, like you said, we have 33 communities and eight of them are designated authorities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. The thing is, from last year, we learned a lot from the disaster and some of the challenges. One of the things, like you heard in my opening comments, was that we noticed there was this deficiency in regional staff. We needed to have more staff at the regional level to help the communities out, so we created five positions.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a very loaded question, I would have to say. I think it's all-encompassing. Again, as I said in my opening comments, it's about making sure our communities are prepared. That means we need to be working with them so they're prepared, whether with tabletop exercises or making sure their emergency response plans are in place and that residents....

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We have a process where we reach out to the federal government if we need the rangers, the military or the Red Cross. The system we have in place right now works well. I have to write a letter to the minister of safety and ask him for the Canadian Rangers. We also have to work with Joint Task Force North and reach out to them.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I hope this will be five minutes. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs for the opportunity to discuss the challenges faced by our territory's government and our communities. My name is Shane Thompson.