Hon. Glen Cummings (Minister of Natural Resources): Madam Speaker, I have a ministerial statement and copies to distribute.

I am pleased to report today that rainfall throughout the province in the past 12 hours has greatly assisted firefighting. St. Theresa Point is the only area that did not receive precipitation. The latest information includes the fact that we have 61 fires burning, including five new starts overnight, four in the northeast region and one in the eastern region. There has been a total of 171 fires covering an area of more than 33,500 hectares. The general rainfall has allowed us to be much more aggressive in our firefighting efforts, especially on the Manigotagan fire where we have added 40 to 50 additional fighters to deal with the hot spots. The other hot spot, the St. Theresa Point fire, is being held to 120 hectares.

I am sorry to report, however, that we also have an investigator on site reviewing the possible causes of fire, including arson. The rainfall has been very timely, and even with more favourable weather conditions Manitobans are asked to be very cautious and remind everyone that outdoor burning is not permitted except under the authority of a burning permit. Thank you.

Mr. Eric Robinson (Rupertsland): I want to thank the minister for his statement this afternoon and keeping us up to date. I guess the good news would be that we had a change of weather overnight, and as a result rain came down, much-needed rain, in the communities that have been affected by the forest fires.

I am told that people from Seymourville, Manigotagan and Hollow Water will be going home. I hope that comment that was made to me is correct because I had an opportunity to meet with many of the evacuees in Pinawa, in Pine Falls, that were located at the Pine Falls arena yesterday. In spite of bad circumstances, I think we must commend the people who stayed back and assisted with the fire efforts with the Natural Resources personnel. I believe that also we must be fully thankful to the many volunteers. Whenever an evacuation has to occur, it is quite well known that it is not the most comfortable when people have to be moved from their homes. It has been a period of four days since people have been dislodged from their homes and placed into unfamiliar surroundings, and I had an opportunity to speak with several of the elders and the women and the children from the communities that are affected at the facility in Pinawa. I do want to say that we congratulate the volunteers that have been involved in Pinawa and also in Pine Falls and the volunteers in Bissett as well where the evacuees and of course the many located throughout the city of Winnipeg.

We want to commend the volunteers for the efforts that they have made as well as the people that are involved with the Emergency Measures team. I believe that they deserve all the credit in the world. As I said earlier, evacuation at the best of times is not something that we would like to wish upon our fellow Manitobans, but given the circumstances, I believe that everybody concerned has done a tremendous job, especially the people who stayed home and tried to save the homes and did a tremendous job in doing that. Unfortunately, we lost some homes in St. Theresa Point and in days ahead will have to figure out how we can replace those homes because, as we have said repeatedly, houses are a much-needed commodity in many First Nations communities.

I do want to thank the minister for his update today.