Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We addressed as a government the grievance that these Bird Dog officers laid before this government as a safety issue. We brought in two independent consultants to assess the pilots.
For example, one of our consultants has 21,000 hours total flying time. He has 45 years' experience in aviation operations and management. He was the DC-6 chief training pilot and operation captain for Con Air for over four years. He has flown fire suppression missions for other operations in northern Canada. He is currently a company training pilot and check pilot for Air North, training pilots and conducting safety proficiency checks on both DC-4 and DC-3 aircraft functions. He has performed since 1988 as an instrument check pilot and air carrier inspector with Transport Canada. He monitored the operations of 23 different air carriers and was co-founder and chief of operations for the Biafra human airlift. He was also director of flight operations for Air Vietnam which operated 56 aircraft. His qualifications are excellent, and this man sat in the cockpit and said the DC-4 captains were qualified to fight fires in the Northwest Territories. It is this government's position that they are quite qualified. We have addressed the safety issues.
The next step is to inform the Bird Dog officers to report to work. We need them to work to do their orientation. They refused to go to work so they were terminated. It is as simple as that. Thank you.