Mr. Chair, I think the short answer is yes. If you'll allow me to back up just a second to give an element of explanation on that, you're right when you say that to some degree, years and years ago you might have been able to do things somewhat differently.
But it goes back again to the issue of the division of responsibility. Until quite recently, domestic or indigenous bugs were thought to be the responsibility of the provinces, and bugs with passports were the responsibility of the federal government.
I think this was a bit of the problem in the sense that we had this relatively artificial division, and it complicated life. I think that division is now being dealt with more effectively; the department is now working on the development of a national pest policy to try to deal with some of these issues.
The difficulty, of course, is that in the context of the national parks it's the responsibility of Parks Canada, and they have a very strong mandate of preservation. I would venture to suggest that if you had the head of Parks Canada here they would argue that they would try to do almost anything rather than destroy the forest. But technically speaking, I do believe they would have the authority to do it.