Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to forest management, there is $30 million in this capital amount and every year for the last number of years we've seen a decline in the forest expenditures because we haven't had a bad forest fire season. Have we looked at trying to budget for only those amounts that are actually expended and that surplus amount that may be left over at year end goes back to pay down the debt rather than looking at taking out $77,000? I think we could probably get a few more dollars out of this capital item. Have you considered looking at an alternative knowing we have not expended all the money? I know we just approved a $20 million sole source water bomber contract. We could probably save some money if we went out to public tender. We hear a lot with regard to trying to find savings in this government. This is one area we can realistically look at where we have an operation which is managed year round.

Realistically, we've seen a decline in the licensing area, the management of the forestry itself. Has the department looked at making deeper cuts than $77,000? Can we do better than $77,000 for a budget that is totalling some $30 million?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, it's one we can look at. We have been fortunate in the last few years of having good fire seasons. At some point, we may not be that fortunate and we may have to find ourselves adding supplementary funding into here. The figure we have in here is meant to cover the contract expenses, plus the suppression expenses and that's the piece that we don't really know what it would be. If there is money that is lapsed, isn't needed for forest fire suppression, then that does come back to general revenue.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we go through these budget amounts and it seems like a number we are picking on is 10 percent. To me, this is not 10 percent of the budget. We talked about a little bit of money for the community access road projects, some $800,000. In that project, we took $100,000 out which is more than 10 percent. To be consistent here, let's be consistent across the board and everybody gets cut by 10 percent. What you can see is we can't play the game of pick and choose. Have cuts right across the board. We have a department that has a $30 million budget and we are taking $77,000. That's peanuts. That's just having fewer helicopter hours. Instead of using helicopter hours at year end to go out to a lake to go fishing or take a tour to see where the wildlife is, maybe we just hold off on one of those helicopter trips and we will save ourselves $77,000. I think we can do better than $77,000 for a forest management item, which is a $30 million budget item. Come on, let's be fair. You are telling us you can take $100,000 from an $800,000 budget item, which is there to assist small communities, but when you have a $30 million budget, you take $77,000 out of it. They are not cutting deep enough. Are you going to go back and cut a little deeper in this portfolio?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, again to clarify, what we did to each department, to be fair, is ask them to identify their controllable expenditures and then take 10 percent of that. So in the case of RWED, as a department, their controllable expenditures were $17,236,000. They were asked to come up with $1,724,000, or 10 percent. Then how they chose to divide it up among the activities is up to them. In many ways, Mr. Chairman, I'm glad that they didn't just take it all out of forest fire management because that is just a holding figure. We know full well they could take it out and then in the case of a bad fire season, come and ask us for supplementary money and that wouldn't be fair to the other departments. We don't know each year how much we are going to spend, but we do know if we have a bad fire season, we have to provide the money. In terms of reducing this amount and budgeting differently, I am open to doing that if there is a better way of budgeting for something as unpredictable as forest fires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In this area, I think we can do a lot better by cutting. The weatherman is telling us it's going to be a wet summer, so I think we probably will see a lot of savings in this area. We probably won't see the fire season we have had in the past because it is going to be a wet summer. So we should be able to save some money in this area. If anything, you should put this area under a microscope and make sure they don't have to expend where they don't have to expend and maybe we should leave these choppers and planes grounded until we actually need them, than strictly flying around for the sake of flying around. Will the Minister seriously look at whatever he can do to save in this area? It is a large ticket item, some $30 million. I think in most seasons, the budget was $10 million. So it's expanded greatly since then. I would just like to get some reassurance from the Minister that this area be seriously looked at. Like I said, the weatherman did say it was gong to be a wet summer and from looking outside, it's a cool one.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. I don't know if you can take that to the bank or not. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, we will take it seriously and Mr. Voytilla has made a note of that and we will follow up.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, I want to get further clarity and specifics of the $77,000. I am quite concerned when it comes to forest management. In my opinion we finally got this whole forest timber sector moving. We finally had the government agree that they had to do further studies, more timber analysis. I am hoping that this is not going to be part of it and will derail the plans that we heard this government tell us.

Thank you, McLeod. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, the $77,000 is made up of two items; one is on forest inventories and replanting trees, which is $56,000, then there's $21,000 that the department has trimmed out of their budget for the purchase of small equipment, boats, skidoos, that kind of thing.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. McLeod.

It concerns me, especially when it comes to tree planting. Every summer we have many young men and women from my riding that count on tree planting and it's been ongoing for many years. I would like to ask the Minister how many tree planting projects are going to be cancelled as a result of this economizing measure of $77,000? I don't know if he knows the specifics, but how many of those are from my area of the Deh Cho region?

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, there's $56,000 that is identified here for both forest inventories and silva culture, silva culture being the tree planting side. I don't have information on how many programs make this up or which ones are in the Fort Providence area, but I will ask RWED to provide that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Forest management, not previously authorized, negative $77,000.

Total department, not previously authorized, negative $1,345,200.

Page 20, Executive capital investment expenditures, Commissioner's office, not previously authorized, $200,000.