In final sitting, N.W.T. MLAs to discuss capital budget, evacuations and pass about 'a dozen bills'

N.W.T. MLAs have a long list of tasks to complete during the final sitting of the 19th Assembly which begins Wednesday. 

The sitting comes during a historic wildfire season that saw over 70 per cent of the N.W.T.'s population flee from their homes at some point over the past four months. 

"Despite the delay and the emergency, [the] fall sitting is first and foremost always about the capital budget," said Rylund Johnson, Yellowknife North MLA. 

He added, along with the capital budget, there are "about a dozen bills" that still need it to make it through third reading. These include the proposed Forest Act, and amendments to the Liquor Act and the BDIC Act.

"I think we will probably pass more pieces of legislation in this sitting than we have in any other," Johnson said.  

The sitting is scheduled to last until Oct. 5, but Johnson says MLAs says the session will continue until everything is complete. The nomination period for the upcoming election doesn't officially begin until Oct. 16, meaning the current assembly can still work until then, he said.  

"We'll have some late nights and if we need to keep sitting until it's all done then that's what we'll do," Johnson said.

The current sitting was initially scheduled for mid-August but was delayed as a result of the wildfires. An emergency sitting was held in Inuvik in late August, where MLAs decided to postpone the election to November, and provide more funds to the firefighting budget. 

Richard Edjericon, the MLA for Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh, says he is going to prioritize attempting to get support for his constituents who were affected by the wildfires. 

He says Fort Resolution in particular acted as an unofficial evacuation centre for a lot of displaced residents and the community had to take on the financial burden. 

"Because of that, they're going to be asking to get some of this money back from the territorial government," he said. 

Edjericon also said the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Łutsel K'e Dene First Nation and Fort Resolution used their own funds to do FireSmart work and said he would be pushing the department of Municipal and Community Affairs to help reimburse them for that work.

This is a subject Ron Bonnetrouge, the MLA for Deh Cho, said he would also prioritize, including how the territorial government can help communities build fire breaks.

He said in an email to CBC News that he also wants to find out what the N.W.T. government will be doing to help Enterprise rebuild.