Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 7th, 2017

[William Amos, Liberal, Pontiac, QC]

Thank you for that.

I represent a riding that has 41 municipalities and two first nations reserves, so there are a lot of volunteer firefighters all across the region that is known as the Pontiac, which is, as we have mentioned today, Algonquin territory. What could a fire marshal institution, working I would presume in collaboration with all of the different provinces, bring to remote non-indigenous communities in terms of additional protection? I've got a feeling that there are a lot of rural communities across the country, indigenous and non-indigenous, that would like to see greater coordination across the country. I wonder if you could speak to that.

[Arnold Lazare]

There are a few first nations fire departments that protect non-native communities. They do exist. With AFAC, we're inclusive. There's a lot of idioms saying, is it first nations, indigenous, native? We always take the inclusive stand. We're looking at the Tapirisat, the Métis, the Inuit. We're not limiting ourselves to one nation. We're saying that by providing good training and good education we're helping the community, which may be native or may not be native. We do know that by building capacity anywhere we're increasing fire protective services.

[Blaine Wiggins]

From a programs and services level, quite simply rural first nations will know, in collaboration with our partner here at the regional level, that they are going to get the same level of services being where they are. And they're going to know that this organization is not going to have to fight for those services, that there's a guarantee of the services. Most important, they'll know that the services that are coming to them have been designed by first nations and are being delivered by first nations, and not based on what budget is available. That's probably the most critical component: that we can meet the needs of that community.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you.

MP Anandasangaree.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

I realize that we're out of time, but I just wanted to see with respect to Thursday's witnesses whether we have....

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

I just passed a note saying that we seem to only have two people coming on Thursday. I think the clerk is actively trying to find some, but I put forward a suggestion of perhaps a Manitoba presenter who might be available.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

There's a suggestion that we have Judy Klassen from Manitoba if there is space for another witness.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

If there's agreement, we could see if she would be available. She was active in the fire providing services.

MP McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Madam Chair, I have no objection. Obviously it's important to have as full a panel as we can. If there is a list, then I would presume that for the clerk this would be a backup plan as opposed to pre-empting some of the already suggested witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Agreed.

Arnold, I owe you two minutes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

I'm all right.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Make it powerful, Arnold. Very short—your most insightful question.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

All right.

I'll go back to Mr. Wiggins. In the previous line of questioning, we were talking about folks who are given an evacuation order who, in some instances, refuse to leave or don't want to leave. In Australia there seems to be a system where they can provide a document saying that because the person has a particular type of training, they don't have to abide by the evacuation order. That was what we were getting at.

You have a minute and a half to talk about people who want to stay in place rather than abide by an evacuation order.

[Blaine Wiggins]

I don't want to go on at length about the Australian programs and services, but they pretty much have what they call the “stay and defend, or leave” program. It's that cut and dried: stick it out here or go, but go early. That's probably something we could learn from, as well as the training that goes with it.

But I'd like to turn it over to my colleagues at FNESS—because they worked very closely with the evacuations in B.C.—to draw on some of their experiences and thoughts regarding the training, the policies, and self-direction.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Okay.

[Jeff Eustache]

In an emergency, the first nations in B.C. activate their own emergency evacuation orders through council resolutions. They also have the ability to stay if they choose to. It's the province that gives them the advice to leave based on the wildfire threat and risk. I just wanted to clarify that they can do that.

Some of them chose to suppress the fires as well. I think it's important...and as I mentioned, they have the training, the capacity, and resources to stay and fight the fire; they just don't have the ability to do that under the current agreements. The model in Australia, I think, would work out very well if the first nations in B.C. had that agreement with the province and the federal government, under the proper certification, training, and capacity, to be registered to fight those fires.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

I think we've exceeded our official time.

We've had a robust conversation. We appreciate your participation. Meegwetch for coming out. We appreciate your insights.

The meeting is adjourned.