Mr. Chairman, the fires that are fought are done, not with zones, but more with the idea that we should protect those things that we value out there. If there are people out on the land who are at risk from fires, then that
would take priority. If there is real property, like trap lines, outpost camps, cabins, property or people, once we identify them, we assign resources to protect them. If we identify fires as they start, if they are in the area rich in wildlife, prime registered trapping areas, again, those are the ones that would take precedence. If they are in a good timber area, then we will fight them.
If a fire starts in the middle of muskeg, for instance, I don't know if the community will want to fight it, then again they might. It is a judgement call that people have to make depending on the value of it. In some cases, people have no objections to certain areas burning. We are looking at doing prescribed burns. Some areas, like Mills Lake, which is just south of Providence on the Mackenzie River, we could get rid of many willows that are starting to overgrow so that it is cutting into the habitat of the ducks and geese that fly through there in the spring and fall. There is a need to let burns happen in some of the prairie areas that are the habitat of buffalo. We don't do it according to zones.
There is much local involvement, as much as we can. There is always the suggestion that, sometimes, if a fire is too small, you leave it. Half a day later, it is an enormous fire. You thought it was going to rain, it doesn't. You think the wind is not going to pick up and it does. The wind changes direction, sort of driving it towards a lake and it drives it the other way. Those are all conditions people are always beating on the department for making the mistakes. There have also been some good decisions made in some cases. We just never bothered to mention them. Thank you.