Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning, all crews in tanker bases throughout the Northwest Territories reported back to work; except, I believe, there are three Bird Dog officers who have presently booked out sick. They have been sent letters to provide doctors' slips; I guess that is the process for reporting in sick. But, we cannot be left without some plan in place if people are sick for a lengthy period of time, so we do have a plan in place. We have two CL-215s in from Newfoundland, and in Newfoundland for many years now, they have actioned fires with a lone CL-215; that's when a CL-215 will actually go out on a smoke patrol when lightening has struck. We have lightening detectors out there that tell us where lightening strikes and the CL-215 can action that fire prior to anyone else being in that area. Then a ground crew can go in and mop that fire up.

We have procedures being drawn up today to action fires. Contrary to the perception that we will be bombing fires with ground crews, helicopters and heavy fixed-wing equipment, we will not be doing that. We're in the process right now of hiring some more Bird Dog officers to replace those who have booked off sick. We don't know how long they are going to be sick. We should have a better idea on Monday how long they will be sick. There are two experienced officers who have offered their services to us. For serious and threatening fires, we have been offered officers on loan from other jurisdictions. There are also several experienced northern firefighters, aboriginal people born and raised in the Northwest Territories, who have worked for Renewable Resources for many years who have expressed interest in air attack or Bird Dog on a full-time basis. So arrangements are made presently to ship a few of them down to BC and Alberta. They are out of Fort Smith and Fort Resolution. Those two people have expressed some interest and they are also fire bosses.

Fixed-wing tankers will only be used on the fire scene as long as we have effective communication in place. So we will be doing that. We do have things under control. We are working with the crews that we have. I must say we have approximately 150 firefighters, who are very skilled and committed to fighting fires in the Northwest Territories, and they are willing to show up every day and go to work. We would prefer to use the air attack officers, but I can't be held at ransom, as the Minister, and have the system stop because a few of my employees choose to book off sick or choose not to go to work when they are instructed to.

So we have made alternate plans. I feel quite comfortable with those plans. We must always remember that safety is first. We have had the best in Canada check out our pilots and they say they are safe. We have had MOT check out our pilots and they say they are safe. So let's leave MOT and these type of people to check things out. They are the ones who know; not Bird Dog officers. Thank you.

Thank you. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.