Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for joining us, Shane. In your two years as minister, you've certainly seen your share of emergencies, especially when it comes to floods. It's quite concerning that we're starting to see floods in communities where we really didn't have the same level of flooding before. I appreciate your comment about seeing the 200-year flood levels being reached. For example, Hay River was developed with what they called a “new town”. It was not supposed to flood, and this year it flooded.
I'm quite concerned. We have, as you stated, many communities without roads. We have many communities without police. We have a lot more ships in the northern part of the territory and we really don't have any navigational aids, so it's an accident waiting to happen. I'm not sure how we would handle it, because the coastal communities don't have a lot of larger boats.
The Canadian Rangers are a good support. I belong to the rangers. I was a master corporal with the rangers. I volunteered to work with the junior rangers, but I know that they don't have equipment. They don't have radios, so they can't talk to each other. They don't have air support. They don't really have a budget. The radios the police use are not the same as the ones the fire department or the health centre uses. The synchronization of equipment is not there.
It's really important when disasters strike. It's critical that all levels of government know their roles and responsibilities, and that they maintain good communications between all levels of government and with the residents.
My first question is whether you think that additional training opportunities and planning resources would help ensure that there's no confusion in these communities and have everybody on the same page, so to speak.