Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the minister on his new appointment and wish him well.
The minister is probably aware of an event that took place in the last two years in my riding of Wild Rose on the Stoney reserve. Several thousands of acres of forest were virtually devastated. As a result the government is being sued by the Indian reserve to the tune of $50 million for the damages that occurred through the loss of trees, et cetera.
That whole episode is just beginning. We will reap some very sad rewards from that event. The sad part of it is the government was warned by me and other members on this side of the House that this was happening. We urged and encouraged it to get involved and do something about it before it was too late. Now it will be at least 40 years before another tree will be removed from that entire reserve.
There are literally hundreds of residents on the reserve who are wondering where all the money went for all of this. That is one problem. The other problem is the destruction of the ecosystem. There is unbelievable damage there.
If the minister has not seen it I encourage him to fly over it, like I have, and take a look. Is the minister prepared to do something about that situation? What steps will he take in the future to make certain we never face that kind of thing again?