Fisheries committee  The primary knowledge I've been given is that the intakes are our biggest concerns. It's no longer raw water through the water treatment plants. Those plants, if designed properly, should be able to limit or completely control the transmission in through the distribution systems.

Fisheries committee  I don't believe all of them would be because not all of the border crossings are open 24 hours a day. I think that would be one of the limiting factors. As to the ones that are open 24 hours a day, I am not 100% certain as to the adequacy of staffing personnel. I don't have that information to provide to you.

Fisheries committee  At the risk of being critical, no, the Alberta government is not doing enough. To me, it's lacking a bit more of a strategy that way. I'll use an example. I am a property owner in the interior of B.C., so I get to travel back and forth numerous times, and the inspection site we have is just west of Calgary.

Fisheries committee  We have, from an RMA point of view, focused on our provincial basis, and that's our direct point to our government. We've had resolutions expressing the importance of zero tolerance, expressing the importance of funding to do some of the preventative operations, much like the inspection sites.

Fisheries committee  Yes, exactly.

Fisheries committee  To put a full number on it would be speculative at best. I just need to point out that more than half of the irrigation is now supplied through piping systems versus open canal, with all the best intentions in mind. If these systems are going to be compromised, the largest and the highest producing part of agriculture within our province would be affected, whether it's the feedlots or the specialty crops in southern Alberta, all those various aspects down there.

Fisheries committee  Thank you and good afternoon, everybody. It's great to see you gathering together to try to get a good understanding of our perspective on this. I am Al Kemmere. I'm a councillor in Mountain View County and president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta. For those of you who don't know Alberta very well, Mountain View County is dead centre in the middle of the province.