Thank you, Madam Chair. I hope the deputy minister doesn't have a tee time booked tonight because he is probably going to miss it.
I would just like to make a number of general comments with regard to this department and areas of concern that I will be watching with interest.
I am very interested in the new steps being taken in forest fire management and attempts to bring control closer to the communities, and in relation to that, of course, to see how the CANSO story will unfold and if they will be as efficient as is hoped, and hopefully, we will have some clear data by the end of the fire season to give us an indication one way or the other which way we are going to go with those.
I am also very concerned about the whole area that was touched on somewhat in the budget: timber management and forest inventory. I consider that to be a very fundamental management tool. If we are going to make the right decisions for the right reasons, we have to know what we have, what kinds of resources, where they are, their age, species and all those other integral components of an inventory. I look forward to seeing that built into some sort of -which may exist -- an overall timber management plan.
I am also -- as I learn more and more about the area of renewable resources -- very concerned about the state of rivers and water. I have had numerous discussions with the mayor of Fort Smith, who is on the Northern Basin River Study, and I made a statement earlier this week in the House about the state of stress that the river systems are under: with pollution and development; the temperature and climate change, which has affected the rates of evaporation and cut our water supplies. This is going to have a direct impact on things such as forest fire management, as water levels drop and the dryness increases in the bush. The Northern Basin River Study and the Mackenzie basin agreement are two critical pieces of information that are going to have a great bearing in the coming year.
My final two comments relate to the western harvesters' fund. Based on my somewhat superficial information, it appears very easy to access that funding. I am thinking particularly of a proposal received from my riding -- which was acknowledged as being very thin -- which we were going to fund to the tune of over $500,000. Although I fully support the intent and the use of those funds, I'm very concerned we spend the money wisely and that we fund proposals which can stand the scrutiny, both in terms of being economical and efficient, but also tie into the overall plans for renewable resources; in this case, timber management or any other area.
I'm very interested in working through the committees and the Minister's department, with the deputy minister, on the whole area of consolidation. I think there's an opportunity not just to integrate existing departments, but create a new structure that will allow a whole array of creative blending of structures and development of a new approach and integration of a whole array of services which will hopefully allow us to move forward in a lot of areas we haven't been able to address because of the lack of coordination. Thank you.