I appreciate that answer. The part that I neglected to mention is this was a joint effort between the communities. The communities would have to want this type of infrastructure in place. The dollars are probably far too little if there was a program developed to actually go out and do these kind of things, rather than set in place a plan which would see some of these trails to local resources developed in consultation with the community. I have always felt the dollar amount was too small and there seemed to be some red tape that may have prevented the total use of the program. This was by way of comment, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to move on to marine services, "to provide equipment, procedures and training for oil spill contamination and clean-up at ferry crossings." Last summer there was an unfortunate incident near Fort Providence where a barge ran aground and there was fuel coming out from it. Mr. Gargan, Mr. Allooloo and I visited that area, it appeared there was little which could be done to capture the oil immediately on impact. Perhaps they were not aware of it, but by the time it was noticed and efforts were made to stop the oil, it had gone a long way down the river. It appeared that the equipment which was there was inadequate to contain a spill of this type under those conditions. It is a fast flowing river and perhaps a bit shallow. The current made it almost impossible to trap the oil given the equipment that was being used.

I realize some of the equipment was developed to contain oil spills, Mr. Chairman, and is developed for certain kinds of conditions. Although water may be rough on a lake the water does not move very far, a wave passes, it is only an up and down motion. However, where you have a river, the oil or contaminant is transported a long way in one direction. For containment of oil spills, plans have been undertaken for oceans, ice and lakes. However, on rivers in those particular conditions, it appeared to me, that the equipment was inadequate and the response time too long before they were able to stop the oil. When they did put in the booms, they could not recover anything. They might as well have let it go and let it evaporate. It seems there are no procedures for river accidents, certainly in that area where you have fast turbulent water, and shallow water where the spill is likely to occur because of rocks, et cetera. I wonder if there are plans in place for different kinds of conditions?