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Hello everyone. I will call this meeting
to order at 12:30 p.m. I want to

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acknowledge that we are on Treaty One
territory in the land on which we are

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meeting is the traditional lands of the
Inishab Cree, Ojiway, Oji Cree, Dakota,

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and Deni peoples and the homeland of the
Red River Matei nation. As a council in

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a municipality, we will continue to work
on moving forward in partnership with

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indigenous communities in the spirit of
reconciliation and collaboration.

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I would ask for a motion for the waiver
of the minutes, please.

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» Resolve that.
>> Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Michelle. uh

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resolve that adoption of the minutes of
the November 10th, 2025 regular meeting

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and organizational meeting of council be
waved until the next regular meeting of

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council.
Thank you. Moved by councelor Espie,

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seconded by councelor Nichols.
All those in favor

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and that is carried. Thank you. We have
one item of new business. the approval

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of the application for disaster
financial assistance. Councelor Massie,

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please.
>> Thank you, your worship and uh

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colleagues. Uh
this uh today we are calling this

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meeting to look at a resolution of
council to accompany an application to

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the province of Manitoba for disaster
financial assistance with respect to the

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city's wildfire evacuee response in the
summer of 2025.

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And as we're well aware, the province of
Manitoba has established the DFA program

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for the 2025 wildfires. And
municipalities that have been affected

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by the fires, either directly or
indirectly as a host community, which

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Port La Prairie was, can request DFA for
municipal costs. The deadline to apply

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is November 30th, 2025
and a council resolution is required to

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accompany the application and that's why
we're meeting in this special meeting.

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The 2025 wildfire evacuation requires
substantial uh response by community

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safety and RCMP officers as well as city
and portage community revitalization

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corporation administration. There were
also expenses incurred for directly

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supporting the evacuees.
Total costs are currently being

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calculated.
Uh the recommendation from

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administration and I would so move that
the council of the city of Portage

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Prairie approve approve an application
for disaster financial assistance being

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submitted to the province of Manitoba
for costs incurred during the 2025

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wildfire evacuee response.
>> Moved by councelor Massie. Seconded by

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Council Doyle.
Um, is there any questions or comments

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on this from anyone? Councelor Massie.
>> Thank you, your worship. Uh, just a

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question to, uh, administration. I know,
uh, you've been compiling the costs. Uh,

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have you got kind of an estimate of what
that might be for the city right now,

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» Mr. Chota?
>> Yep. through your worship to councelor

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Massie, we have come up with some
preliminary numbers between what was

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spent by PCRC and our cso overtime of
just over 16,000, but we would do expect

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that number will increase once we get
the estimates back from the RCMP on the

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overtime they incurred during the time
period as well.

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» Thank you, Councelor Massie.
>> Yes, thank you worship. just just a

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comment and first of all, you know, as
someone that used to work in this

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program and and and managed it for the
province, it's a very good program for

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municipalities and um I really encourage
our staff to compile the costs and you

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know, certainly we want to be whole
after the fires u uh as much as

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possible. But I just also want to thank
uh I I really want to thank all the

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people that were involved. I wasn't as
involved as uh many people were, but

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certainly I want to thank our mayor and
mayor Knox for her leadership during

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that time. Uh hopefully uh you know all
the all the people that contributed. I I

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saw what a wonderful job we did and the
message we always gave was to look after

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these people and uh this this recovery
of cost is just a a way we can get our

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costs back. But I I just wanted to say
that because I I know how stressful it

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was in that this past summer for
everybody. So, thank you, worship.

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» Thank you, Councelor Porter.
>> As well, I'd like to thank all the whole

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community for for joining in on this
because they were a big part of helping

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everybody out too. And and uh so it just
goes to show you what kind of community

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we have and uh and thankful for you
there, Cherylyn, for your leadership

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there.
>> Thank you.

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Yeah, just just my comment, you know,
this is this uh one piece of applying

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for this the financial assistance is one
piece of our afteraction review that

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we're doing as a community. Um we we
know that our province is also

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undertaking that task because we want to
make sure that as a province we are

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ready for what's to come. Um, so some of
this might feel like administrative

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work, but all of this information gets
piled together and helps us move forward

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so that we're ready for for what's next.
Um, I agree, same same thing. Just

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thankful to everyone in our community
who stepped up, um, our city team, etc.,

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who just helped, um, just helped this
move along. And I think we have to be

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proud of Portage Prairie for for how we
did that. and supported those people. Um

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the other thing is is that we will
definitely be finding ways to recognize

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the people who played some main roles in
that. Uh and that'll be part of our

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afteraction review that we're
undertaking.

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Thank you everyone.
If nothing else, all those in favor

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and that is carried.
I will adjourn this meeting at 12:36 PM.

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Thank you everyone for taking the time
out of your day and have a great

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weekend. Yep. Okay. Bye-bye. Okay.