Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My general comments to the Department of Renewable Resources are with regard to one part of the mandate of the department. Like many Members who spoke, my concern is the environmental protection measures. In my constituency we have two rivers joining. One is the Deh Cho, and a lot of the water comes from the provinces of Alberta and BC. The other one is the Liard River which comes in from BC. My constituents have been telling me for the last few years that the water quality is getting worse. The fish quality is also getting bad. An example is, last summer one of the elders who has a fish net out of Simpson showed me some fish that were in very bad shape. The fish we call suckers had big sores on them. Their fins were all worn right down. Pickerel had sores on them and the white fish as well. He was telling me that it's been like that most of the summer.

We gave about four or five different species of fish to a renewable resource officer to see what the problem was. They took them and we haven't heard what happened to these fish. My concern is that the people we represent in here bring these issues to us, and we bring them to the Department of Renewable Resources because there is no other place in the north where we can take animals and fish off the land to get them tested. We don't have the resources ourselves.

This is the only department in the north that has a mandate to provide environmental protection measures. One of the goals is that the quality of the environment is protected and enhanced. Based on these departmental mandates and goals, I would like to know what I can do. Is there a process or system in place so that whenever a constituency has concern about the quality of fish and animals I could take it to this department. I would like to be assured that tests are done on these animals and that the results of the tests are made known

to me, or to the people who are concerned. I would like to know if there is a system in place for us.

I heard from the honourable Members in this House today that there is a great deal of concern about the environment. We are all aware that the animals that we've known to be on the land and in the water...their conditions are deteriorating. There is nothing we can do to stop it, but at least what we can do is try to identify what the problem is. In a very speedy manner, it would be good to do that. I would just like to hear from the department, a satisfactory reply to my concerns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.