Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not have the particulars on the current regulation. However, the standards for airport firefighting are fairly high in terms of the new provision that was proposed by the federal Minister of Transport. Those do apply to the larger airports such as Yellowknife, Inuvik, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Hay River. The airport firefighting response at smaller airports is set out through the airport regulations. In that context, it is required that there be an emergency plan for the airport that is filed with Transport Canada. So in essence, there is a response for every airport, every one of the twenty-seven. However, the nature of response varies depending on the frequency and the number of landings at the airport in a given year. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would sure like to get that information for the community of Lutselk'e. As I said this morning, by noon, there were five flights into Lutselk'e. I am sure there were many others afterwards.

I am just wondering if there is any difference in the policies when it comes to communities that have no road access or any kind of access into the community other than air transportation. If there is a problem with their airstrip or if it is going to be closed down or anything, that lifeline to the community is going to be cut off. I wonder if that is considered in the policy that Mr. Vician had mentioned. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, at this point, the airport regulations do not consider the remoteness of a specific community. However, in the draft of the airport regulations, the airport fire-fighting provision that was brought forward by Minister Collenette recently, there was a specific provision in the exclusions clause that did speak to remote sites that did not have year-round access. Regardless, the airport fire-fighting requirements are not that significant for airports such as Lutselk'e in terms of movement. We are talking about significantly higher movements before the airport fire-fighting regulation requirement would kick in. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can the Minister or his deputy elaborate on what he means by significant? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Significant, Mr. Chairman, would mean traffic in the order of 10,000 or above movements per year. That would be the kind of traffic on a total basis. My understanding at Lutselk'e, current traffic in Lutselk'e in 1998 was 780 aircraft movements. Again, that is quite a difference in totals. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Those are probably scheduled flights that have been recorded. I just want to know what provisions the Minister or the deputy minister could speak of off the top of their head, just for the information to the House and to the people of the Northwest Territories, what kind of provisions are in place for a place like Lutselk'e? What kinds of plans do they have if there is an emergency due to a plane crashing, a plane running off the runway? It poses a danger to the safety of transportation of people and material to and from Lutselk'e. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The requirements under the current airport regulations require that an airport emergency plan is filed with Transport Canada as part of the airport operations. At this point, an airport like Lutselk'e would be limited to a minimum with regard to notification procedures and how to respond to such an airport incident within the airport proper. The department, of course, in operating the airport, does not take responsibility for airport incidents that occur not related to the airport. Those are handled through Transport Canada, the Transportation Safety Board, the RCMP and other search and rescue agencies in Canada. It becomes a matter of federal jurisdiction and regulation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.