Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources for his post-mortem on 2012 wildfire end of season and more so for playing an active role in containing, as he indicated, 279 fires and taking action on over 89 fires. I know he is not the one out in the field putting out the fires personally. We have to commend the hard work of the wildfire crews, the air crews and the emergency fire services teams.
Within the document today, there is mention of the fleet of our CL-215’s. This is a well-known fact that these planes were given to us for almost the same amount of change I have in my left pocket, for very little from the federal government. These aircraft were really entering the end of lifecycle or their end of use cycle for the Northwest Territories. We have seen little to no plan in the recent capital budget for the replacement of this very expensive piece of equipment or any capital needs assessment to the House.
Can the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources please indicate what the plan is of the government to replace this fleet? Thank you.