[0:05] Hello everyone. I will call this meeting
to order at 12:30 p.m. I want to
[0:13] acknowledge that we are on Treaty One
territory in the land on which we are
[0:17] meeting is the traditional lands of the
Inishab Cree, Ojiway, Oji Cree, Dakota,
[0:23] and Deni peoples and the homeland of the
Red River Matei nation. As a council in
[0:28] a municipality, we will continue to work
on moving forward in partnership with
[0:33] indigenous communities in the spirit of
reconciliation and collaboration.
[0:40] I would ask for a motion for the waiver
of the minutes, please.
[0:47] » Resolve that.
>> Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Michelle. uh
[0:51] resolve that adoption of the minutes of
the November 10th, 2025 regular meeting
[0:55] and organizational meeting of council be
waved until the next regular meeting of
[0:59] council.
Thank you. Moved by councelor Espie,
[1:04] seconded by councelor Nichols.
All those in favor
[1:12] and that is carried. Thank you. We have
one item of new business. the approval
[1:17] of the application for disaster
financial assistance. Councelor Massie,
[1:23] please.
>> Thank you, your worship and uh
[1:26] colleagues. Uh
this uh today we are calling this
[1:31] meeting to look at a resolution of
council to accompany an application to
[1:36] the province of Manitoba for disaster
financial assistance with respect to the
[1:40] city's wildfire evacuee response in the
summer of 2025.
[1:45] And as we're well aware, the province of
Manitoba has established the DFA program
[1:49] for the 2025 wildfires. And
municipalities that have been affected
[1:54] by the fires, either directly or
indirectly as a host community, which
[1:58] Port La Prairie was, can request DFA for
municipal costs. The deadline to apply
[2:04] is November 30th, 2025
and a council resolution is required to
[2:10] accompany the application and that's why
we're meeting in this special meeting.
[2:15] The 2025 wildfire evacuation requires
substantial uh response by community
[2:20] safety and RCMP officers as well as city
and portage community revitalization
[2:27] corporation administration. There were
also expenses incurred for directly
[2:31] supporting the evacuees.
Total costs are currently being
[2:35] calculated.
Uh the recommendation from
[2:39] administration and I would so move that
the council of the city of Portage
[2:42] Prairie approve approve an application
for disaster financial assistance being
[2:48] submitted to the province of Manitoba
for costs incurred during the 2025
[2:52] wildfire evacuee response.
>> Moved by councelor Massie. Seconded by
[3:00] Council Doyle.
Um, is there any questions or comments
[3:05] on this from anyone? Councelor Massie.
>> Thank you, your worship. Uh, just a
[3:09] question to, uh, administration. I know,
uh, you've been compiling the costs. Uh,
[3:14] have you got kind of an estimate of what
that might be for the city right now,
[3:20] » Mr. Chota?
>> Yep. through your worship to councelor
[3:23] Massie, we have come up with some
preliminary numbers between what was
[3:27] spent by PCRC and our cso overtime of
just over 16,000, but we would do expect
[3:33] that number will increase once we get
the estimates back from the RCMP on the
[3:37] overtime they incurred during the time
period as well.
[3:42] » Thank you, Councelor Massie.
>> Yes, thank you worship. just just a
[3:47] comment and first of all, you know, as
someone that used to work in this
[3:51] program and and and managed it for the
province, it's a very good program for
[3:54] municipalities and um I really encourage
our staff to compile the costs and you
[4:00] know, certainly we want to be whole
after the fires u uh as much as
[4:05] possible. But I just also want to thank
uh I I really want to thank all the
[4:10] people that were involved. I wasn't as
involved as uh many people were, but
[4:14] certainly I want to thank our mayor and
mayor Knox for her leadership during
[4:18] that time. Uh hopefully uh you know all
the all the people that contributed. I I
[4:23] saw what a wonderful job we did and the
message we always gave was to look after
[4:28] these people and uh this this recovery
of cost is just a a way we can get our
[4:34] costs back. But I I just wanted to say
that because I I know how stressful it
[4:37] was in that this past summer for
everybody. So, thank you, worship.
[4:42] » Thank you, Councelor Porter.
>> As well, I'd like to thank all the whole
[4:48] community for for joining in on this
because they were a big part of helping
[4:54] everybody out too. And and uh so it just
goes to show you what kind of community
[4:59] we have and uh and thankful for you
there, Cherylyn, for your leadership
[5:04] there.
>> Thank you.
[5:08] Yeah, just just my comment, you know,
this is this uh one piece of applying
[5:13] for this the financial assistance is one
piece of our afteraction review that
[5:18] we're doing as a community. Um we we
know that our province is also
[5:23] undertaking that task because we want to
make sure that as a province we are
[5:30] ready for what's to come. Um, so some of
this might feel like administrative
[5:35] work, but all of this information gets
piled together and helps us move forward
[5:41] so that we're ready for for what's next.
Um, I agree, same same thing. Just
[5:46] thankful to everyone in our community
who stepped up, um, our city team, etc.,
[5:53] who just helped, um, just helped this
move along. And I think we have to be
[5:58] proud of Portage Prairie for for how we
did that. and supported those people. Um
[6:05] the other thing is is that we will
definitely be finding ways to recognize
[6:09] the people who played some main roles in
that. Uh and that'll be part of our
[6:14] afteraction review that we're
undertaking.
[6:17] Thank you everyone.
If nothing else, all those in favor
[6:24] and that is carried.
I will adjourn this meeting at 12:36 PM.
[6:30] Thank you everyone for taking the time
out of your day and have a great
[6:34] weekend. Yep. Okay. Bye-bye. Okay.