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Mr. Speaker, as the 2026 wildfire season approaches, I would like to provide an update on our government’s continued investments in wildfire preparedness and resilience across the Northwest Territories.

Building wildfire resilience means investing in our communities so our people can live safely with wildfire and be ready for emergencies.

Over the past year, the government has continued to support FireSmart projects and a wide range of community-based wildfire preparedness initiatives across the Northwest Territories. This work provides an important foundation for protecting our communities and critical infrastructure.

We are working to develop a territorial Wildland-Urban Interface Program, as a key area of interest, in partnership with Municipal and Community Affairs and the Northwest Territories Fire Chiefs Association.

Mr. Speaker during the last 12 months, seven local fire departments in small communities received specialized training focused on wildland-urban interface strategies and tactics. This training has helped improve interagency cooperation and strengthened the ability of local responders to work effectively with the GNWT’s wildfire management team.

We are continuing to advance this important initiative with the aim of expanding training opportunities and increasing wildfire response capacity in all communities across the territory.

This work reflects a commitment to strengthening the coordination of territorial wildfire resources and local fire departments, and ensuring communities are well equipped and ready to protect people, homes, and critical infrastructure if threatened by wildfire.

Mr. Speaker, supporting community-led action remains central to our efforts.

Through my discussions with leaders and front-line staff, it is clear that our partners share the goal of constant improvement which will strengthen wildfire prevention and the capabilities our communities have to respond.

With federal financial support, we invested in 11 FireSmart projects across the NWT. These investments supported wildfire mitigation, equipment purchases, expanded fuel reduction work, enhanced cross-training and planning activities, and they will help communities to be wildfire-ready.

Building on this momentum we have committed $1.6 million for similar work in 2026 to ensure communities have stable, predictable support to reduce fire risk.

This initiative builds on the historic $20 million investment led by the NWT Association of Communities and with assistance from Environment and Climate Change, which so far has created fuel breaks, reduced hazardous fuels, and implemented recommendations from community wildfire protection plans.

Mr. Speaker, as we invest in people and programs, we strengthen our operational readiness. Changing climate and wildfire behaviour has led to unpredictable weather, longer seasons, and more challenging fires. We continue to bring on people and equipment at the end of winter each year to ensure we are ready to respond to fires that now occur earlier every season. 

We have invested in two additional structure protection trailers, bringing the territorial government’s total capacity to six trailers, with the ability to protect nearly 200 homes simultaneously. These trailers will be pre-positioned based on wildfire threat assessments and provide additional tools to help protect communities.

We are also looking at modular, air-portable solutions to support protection efforts for remote communities that are not on the road network.

Mr. Speaker, over the winter, fire personnel have received a range of specialised training, and in the next few months we will once again begin annual training to ensure our front-line response teams are fully prepared when the fire season starts.

Community Wildfire Protection Plans are being reviewed and updated for all forested communities in the NWT. The first critical step is hazard and risk assessment work to inform upcoming fuel management projects in communities.

We are advancing interface response plans that detail how we will action a fire with our community partners when a community is threatened.

Mr. Speaker, taken together, these efforts reflect a sustained commitment to safer, more resilient communities in the face of a changing climate. We will continue to invest in our people, and we will continue to prepare so that Northerners are ready for emergencies and the things they care about are protected.

Mashi, Mr. Speaker.