Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I may, I want to share a quick story. I was in northern B.C. last year. In the community I went to, they talked about wildfires. There was an old guy who sat in his field and set it on fire. I guess he had quite a big field, and as he let it burn, the forestry ministry and the wildland firefighters showed up and were all getting nervous.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I also want to add that part of our training and education for first nations communities was that our organization handed out over 26,000 smoke alarms and also fire extinguishers in B.C. We reiterate that you don't need a fire department to have a community champion. When a community champion has that education to provide to the rest of the community on an ongoing basis—we follow up on a monthly or bimonthly basis.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, depending on the size of the community, if they've got somebody with the passion to do it, identify that champion and building from there. Once you find that champion in the community, other people start stepping forward. You lead by example within the community and you find that champion to build that, whether it's the fire department or whether it's wildfire services in your community.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I wanted to share a couple of things in regard to what Blaine is talking about. I do fire prevention governance workshops with chiefs and councils, and it's really tough to say that there are no standards that are practised that we follow in regard to fire protection in the community, especially with fire protection governance.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sure. Thank you, honourable members. I'd like to add a couple of things, first to build on the resource capacity of our community members. As fire chiefs in communities, we're often billed as the go-to person during an emergency, whether that's emergency coordinator or fire chief.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here and allowing me to be here.