Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The last meeting I had with the Minister of Environment from Alberta was on February 12. I met with him on a number of issues, including water and contaminants. I need to have an agreement in place where the province would allow us to ship hazardous waste to Swan Hills. Up to this point, the province of Alberta has a policy stating that no contaminants will be transported to Swan Hills to be destroyed. That was their policy. The only contaminants they were allowing to be destroyed in Swan Hills were Alberta's own contaminants. I have been working with the Alberta government for quite awhile, starting with Mr. Klein when he was Minister of Environment. It was Mr. Klein's initiative to try to change the policy to allow limited contaminants to be transported to Alberta from the Northwest Territories. He understood that we have very little compared to what they process in a day in Swan Hills.

I have been told there could be a possible agreement in place by September to transport our contaminants down to Alberta. Also, they had a document produced in Cabinet. They have had public hearings around communities where the road goes from the Northwest Territories down to Swan Hills. I am told there was no public outcry because our contaminants are very minimal compared to what they have. It is now up to the Cabinet of Alberta to decide whether or not they will receive our contaminants. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the eastern Arctic in the Baffin area, there was PCB guided by military and was shipped to a Montreal destruction facility. The Power Corporation shipped their transformers to a Montreal destruction facility. I am not sure how they shipped them, but they have mostly taken care of the local items. Again, we were briefed by military last week on the need to clean up the old DEW Line sites and one of the things they are dealing with are the contaminated sites regarding chemicals, hazardous waste and also contaminated soil and lakes which they are planning to clean up. They are coming up with a strategy and are working with our department to deal with those issues. My department will be working with MACA and the military to come up with a strategy. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Whitford.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My two departments are working on ways to deal with most of the waste oil and garbage which would be dangerous to the environment. The department is also working with the Power Corporation to deal with their oil changes and other contaminants, as well as DPW. The Member is correct that some time ago a Hay River corporation was trying to start purifying oil, but they found there is not enough of it to use. There was not enough used oil in the western Arctic to do what they were trying to do, so they stopped the project. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Whitford.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These burns are done by municipalities. It is to train the fire fighters and they are using fuel oil to burn. The black smoke you see is mostly carbon. There might be other chemicals, but I am not sure. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to stay on the same subject of trees. I have lived in the west for quite a long time now and have grown to love these trees. Mr. Chairman, I know when we take things over from the federal government, we end up having the bad jobs. We do not own the trees, yet we are responsible for putting out the fires which threaten to destroy them. There are a few other things which we have taken over also that puts a heavy obligation on us, but we do not get the nice parts which are connected with that particular activity. Since we have taken over fire suppression from the federal government, what other jobs in connection with trees are the federal government still responsible for? Since they own the trees, what does the federal government do to protect this assets which belongs to the Crown?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

I will have my deputy minister answer the question.

Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, the federal government still retains responsibility for environmental issues on Crown land. In a general sense, they are still responsible for air and water and those kinds of issues on Crown land. Basically our responsibility is primarily on Commissioner's land. They look after the broad environmental issues which may affect the trees. The second area would be that they are responsible for land use permits on the same land. If someone is building a road to a logging area, then this would be a federal responsibility. Our responsibility would be to issue the logging permit or to determine where a wood lot would be in this case.

Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe I asked this question a few years ago and I have never really received a straightforward answer to it, or at least not one which I had a clear idea about. I understand that in places where they do clear cut logging in British Columbia and in the maritime provinces, because they destroy the whole lot, they then go about reforesting the area. From several of the presentations which we have had in this Assembly, we have been told that people do not do clear cut logging. What they do is select areas, because perhaps in our part of the world not that many trees reach the dimensions where you can justify cutting a large number of trees down in one area. I am not an expert in the area, however, I have read a lot and I have spoken with quite a few people. What I cannot understand is why do we reforest those areas, when I am told the best plan is to simply let nature take its course and that you would be far better off weeding out or taking out those trees which obviously are not going to come to very much and let the stronger ones grow. I am always struck when I am travelling on the highway that we have huge expanses of land where fire has, in fact, essentially clear cut the whole area. You have literally thickets of trees, they grow so close together. Everyone of them is struggling for space, air and nourishment. Why is it that we have gone the route of reforestation, in other words, putting in new plants and seeding things, where we have these huge expansions when all you really have to do is cut some of those trees out to let the other ones grow. I have never seen a program where we have done this; Where we simply take advantage of the work which has already been done by nature and then cut out the trees which are not doing that well so that the stronger ones can grow and have a better wood harvest for us sometime in the future. It is a long question but it has always puzzled me.

Mr. Minister.