Also from the letter I tabled in the House signed by the Minister, I want to quote one portion of that letter, Mr. Speaker. The Minister stated, '"The decision to proceed without Mr. Pederson was made since I took responsibility for this program. It was necessary if we were to make a smooth transition to the new northern contractor and subcontractors for the fixed-wing services for the fire operation." Can I ask the Minister what he meant by making such a statement? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister indicating that this commitment was only with respect to staff who were employed as Bird Dog officers? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of fire suppression a question. Mr. Speaker, on May 29th, the Minister wrote a letter, which I tabled in this House, that indicated that he would give a commitment to making every attempt to find employment for the individuals that all of a sudden he is deeming to be laid off. I would like to ask the Minister why he is not living up to his commitment as stated in the letter to me which was tabled in this House? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister whether or not he views that type of authority, with regard to arbitrarily doing lay-offs or discontinuing positions, as political interference? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have no problem withdrawing the statement, even though it is placed on the record. However, I do want to ask the Minister, why was the budget process that was presented to Members in this House not implemented in accordance with his departmental plans?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the point of order, I don't want to question your ruling, but I did not indicate the Minister was misleading the House in my comments, if you want to check Hansard. I indicated that the Minister appears to be misleading the House. I want to state that the budget process that was presented to Members in this House and the budget that we passed in this House, does not reflect what the department is implementing. Therefore, the information given to us, as Members, does not appear to be correct. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Normally, when we're advised of positions being deleted, they are identified in the budget process which reflects the amount of

PYs in a particular activity. The Minister seems to be misleading the House with respect to bringing forth budget processes without advising us of positions being taken out

Thank you. Since he decided to identity a position to be redundant when he took over the responsibility of being Minister, can he indicate whether or not his department had indicated that eliminating a person year should be part of the budget process? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister responsible for fire suppression. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, since he has indicated in his reply to an oral question today that the manager of air operations and administration position was discontinued, I would like to ask the Minister why was this position not identified as part of the normal budget process, but only at the start of the fire season? Thank you.