Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The stumpage fee that is charged to the companies operating in the Deh Cho area, is it comparable to stumpage fees in British Columbia?

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe we have and are moving towards making sure that while we do not discourage activity and business in this sector, we also get a fair return comparable to southern jurisdictions given our own circumstance in the north. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. For the record, we are on Bill 8, Appropriation Act, 1997-98, Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, page 11-19, forest management, operations and maintenance. I recognize Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Henry. Mr. Kakfwi.

Mr. Chairman, it is difficult to isolate it to that extent, but we do know how many fires were started in the Deh Cho area and how many were put out within the first 24 hours, how many went out by themselves through the grace of God or whoever is running this entire operation. We know how much we have spent on the initial attack phase. We know how many fires went out of control and those that stopped through natural forces. We know what our total expenditure is. Last year, we know how many fires because we thought they would be a threat to communities and or private property. For instance there was a big concern along the Ingraham Trail. It is always a big concern. There is a very high priority area along the Ingraham Trail, not much timber potential there. Timber potential is one of the factors we use to decide where the priorities are for fighting fires. Maybe that is another way of answering the Member's question. If it is possible, I am not sure it is, we could try to give the Member some idea of how much potential timber we saved in the Liard area by fighting the fires we did, which could have threatened so many million dollars worth of harvestable timber, which is actually the entire Liard Valley. We could try to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Henry. Minister Kakfwi.

Yes, we have areas of priority. We also work with communities. We would be requested very often by a community leader, perhaps a chief, to consider fighting a fire that may have started 200 miles from the community but for reasons that are important to the community they want us to fight the fire, we would do that. But we are sometimes requested by outfitters to fight fires that are say 150 miles out that threaten their business. We do have areas that are of high priority. We are flexible. Last summer, for instance, we offered to communities to have authority at the community level to spend up to, I think, $30,000 on the initial attack operation. For instance, we were prepared to give the chief in Rae, the mayor or local committee if the community wished the power to spend in the initial attack on the fire up to $30,000, so they would have that type of local control. As far as I know, none of the communities last summer in any case, took us up on that offer, apparently being quite satisfied with the response capability and sensitivity by our department. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Kakfwi. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Henry. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know there were some years when Calgary was complaining about the smoke from the Northwest Territories, including places in Alaska and in Saskatchewan. There is not much we can do about it when we have the kind of fires we have seen in recent years with the drought conditions, the low water content in the ground and the low annual precipitation we have seen in certain years, as well as the kind of summers that we have seen with a lot of lightning activity for instance. We do try to keep the fires down to a minimum within a certain budget. We do not fight all the fires, but we do try. We have tried to increase our response capability so that in the initial attack

phase we are trying to increase our capability of putting out as many fires as possible in the initial start up times. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. I have forest management, operations and maintenance and I have Mr. Ootes, Mr. Erasmus and Mr. Roland. I will recognize Mr. Roland, seeing as he has not had an opportunity to speak on this activity. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have an on-going commitment to privatize where we can. For instance, we still have a number of government crews for fire fighting. We are prepared to privatize all of them as soon as the private sector is capable of taking over those functions and we are satisfied the fire crews we have are going to be treated fairly and properly in the process of privatization. As far as particular operations are concerned, I am not aware of any particular moves to shut down operations. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Kakfwi. Mr. Roland.

I take it then from the Minister's remarks, that what we had in the previous year will still be functional this summer and I am speaking specifically in the Inuvik region.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Kakfwi.

Mr. Chairman, I do not think there are any reductions, but just to make sure that I am not lying about it, that is why we are going through the figures here. Perhaps I should not jest. We had a rough day yesterday, but I am not aware of any reductions in that area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. I now recognize Mr. Ootes.