Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to the comments on fire towers and fire prevention, the department could be building and adding more towers to the forested areas. We could be building more satellite bases and doing more fire prevention, which I believe in the long run, will save money for the department and the government on firefighting. However, with the limited resources we have been given, we are not able to keep up with the suggestions that are being made.
The study that was done on behalf of the department on ways to improve fire fighting in the Northwest Territories was done by Peat Marwick Stevenson and Kellogg. They did a massive study on firefighting. It consisted of 11 studies on firefighting. I believe they tried to cover all aspects and how we could reduce costs. I believe part of their recommendations were to increase the number of towers and to increase fire prevention programs, but, as a government, we are limited by the funds that are available. We are not able to carry out everything we would like to be doing.
As far as the wood cutting is concerned, there is a fee of $1.50 per cord and this fee is to cover some of the costs incurred by the department in forest management, areas where small roads will have to be made to reach certain areas of the forest. These costs are charged to wood cutters or loggers to offset some of the costs that we, as a department, incur in forest management. Again, we are reviewing the process and the fees as they are outlined in our Forest Management Act but if there are specific concerns that the Member has, we certainly will take into account his comments while undertaking this review.
Mr. Chairman, I forgot to mention that the fire management study that I spoke of has, I believe, been provided to the Standing Committee on Finance. I believe that was done just over the weekend. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.