Mr. Chairman, first of all let me say that we are developing criteria for the oil and gas industry in the same way we did for the diamond industry. In fact, I have asked the department to try to set up a time for me to meet with them to look at how we can best take advantage of our own resources, as well as to track new resources, to be able to invest in the oil and gas industry. We plan to do that probably in April, once this session is over, as a beginning toward planning for the next business plans.

While I cannot commit right now as to what we would be able to do, I agree with the Member. I think we need to put more money into business support. I am beginning, with the department, in April well before the business plan. I hear what the Member is saying and I agree with it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Another area where I have a lot of concern is about the people in the field, and it is quite some time since they have had their equipment replaced -- snowmobiles, equipment around the shops. They are trying to just make do with what they have. I think that sooner or later we are going to have an incident on our hands where somebody is either going to break down or basically have a situation where either someone will lose their life, or we are going to have a situation where we cannot react to something because there is an incident out on the land and we are not able to get our people out there because of the lack of adequate equipment which would allow the people to do the jobs they are trained to do.

We have some good people out in our communities and out in the field who really want to do things, but they are limited because of the lack of good equipment. We need to find ways to replace this equipment so they do have reliable equipment in the field and in the areas they work in. We have to do more to improve the working conditions of the people in the field.

I would like to ask the Minister, do they have any plans to make an attempt to seriously look at the inventory and resources we have in our communities so that we can make the job a lot easier for people out in the field?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will not put our people out on the job, in the field or on the land, with unsafe equipment. We keep that as a basic standard. In terms of our ability to replace equipment and provide additional equipment, it is only limited by our budget. We do have standards for setting priorities. With our limited resources, we try to keep the equipment in as good a shape as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Does the Minister and his department have any criteria with regard to how often you replace equipment within a shop? I believe some of the equipment we are talking about has quite a few years on it. In the past you would replace equipment, say every five years or what not, so that you did not have a situation where you have old equipment. I would like to ask the Minister, do you have any regulation or rules that you follow that you try to make an attempt to have specific replacement of equipment over a period of time? You do not allow them to be run into the ground?

Yes, we do have guidelines and criteria for replacing and maintaining equipment. We attempt to do that in all cases and I know there will always be different opinions on the quality of pieces of equipment. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The other area I wanted to touch on sort of came from Mr. Nitah's question. One of the things we do not seem to do enough of is use the people that live on the land to be our eyes and ears that are out there. We see groups such as the Rangers who do work on behalf of the Canadian Armed Forces. We have hunters and trappers that live out on the land. We have people that are out there, but if we somehow expand the responsibilities to not just the game officers, but give responsibilities to the hunters' and trappers' associations, do not give them enforcement powers, but give them the ability that they can monitor or do things on behalf of this government where we might not be able to send our people out to a specific area. If we know there is a trappers' association or a renewable resource board that have people out on the land doing different work or people that are just out there, you could have people go to the East Arm or a particular area so you could identify areas where you can see where somebody either had left garbage or what not.

That is one thing we see a lot of in the Yukon, but we do not see hardly anything on this side of the border where you have a 1-800 number that you call if you see people poaching along the highways or hunting caribou or hunting moose. The renewable resource officers in the communities seem to be registered police officers. Could this government look at working with renewable resource councils, HTAs, and give them more of a monitoring role when it comes to wildlife management?

In the past, we used to have special status for a wildlife officer. There was a local person who worked along with the wildlife officer who did not really have the training...

Could the Minister tell me if that is something his department will consider looking at?

Mr. Chairman, yes, it certainly is something we will continue to look at. We can also say the majority of our officers are aboriginal as well. I hope to see that trend continue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to touch on an issue that I asked before, but it has to do with the $150 to trappers for offsetting fuel prices for anybody who has $500 worth of fur. In the grants and contributions, I mentioned why this was not being provided to fishermen as well. I think the answer that I got was the fisheries already have contributions through a fund for offsetting high fuel prices and that trappers did not have that. I guess maybe they are under a different place, but how would the supports to grants and contributions to trappers... I see they show up in a number of different issues here. It may be the way Mr. Dent was saying it, but what was the total contributions through grants for trappers from this department?

Mr. Chairman, currently the contribution to the commercial fisheries is $395,000. Then to trappers, we provide contributions through a number of programs. There is $473,000 through the Community Harvester Assistance Program, $345,000 to the Fur Pricing Program, $244,000 this year on the Western Harvester Support Program and $336,000 to support the wildlife boards. Not all of that goes directly to trappers. It goes to supporting their organizations as well. Thank you.

So from the figures that you are reading out, that would almost indicate to me that they are indeed getting as much, if not more, funding than the fishermen are. So why would the fishermen not be eligible for a fuel rebate as well?

Mr. Chairman, when Mr. Delorey asked me this question before, I believe in committee, I said that I would look at whether or not there was a way of doing it. I am pleased to say that I have found enough money to be able to give fishermen the same size of fuel rebate per commercial fishermen as we are giving to the trappers. It will be based on the numbers. They will have to catch and sell at least $500 worth of fish in order to be eligible. They will have to have a commercial licence and we are also extending that program not only to the Great Slave Lake fisheries but to commercial fishermen from Kakisa and the other areas of the Territories.