Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have quite a few questions, but I will be asking the majority of them when we go into detail.

I have some general comments and some concerns I wanted to raise. As you know, the Deh Cho is a territory that is working hard to enter into negotiations. There are a lot of problem areas.

One of the big concerns that I have been faced with since my election is dealing with the Cameron Hills. This is an area that the communities in the Deh Cho, in my riding, are still disputing over whose traditional lands it falls under and there is certainly a lot of overlap. But it is part of the Deh Cho proposal and it is an area that is going to be negotiated and there is discussion on a land use process and also land protection in that area.

However, a big problem that we have been having and experiencing has been with your department on issuance of timber permits. Up to recently, there was really no inventory, and yet permits were issued...I think there were six permits issued this year. When I raised a question about consultation, I cannot find any. I think your consultation amounts to putting an ad in the paper.

So I have to get clarification. Is that what it means? Is there really a good measure of what the inventory is in the Deh Cho?

And now that the permits are issued, all of the logging is pretty well done. The complaints that I am getting are that there is no monitoring. The people who are doing the logging are doing whatever they seem to want to do. I want to ask a question regarding the monitoring area. Have you had any reports regarding the abuse and the butchering that is going on in Cameron Hills? Have any one of you gone up to take a look? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.