* (1050)

Some Honourable Members: Oh, oh.

Madam Speaker: Order, please. We received leave to revert to ministerial statements.

Hon. Glen Cummings (Minister of Natural Resources): Madam Speaker, natural events have caused us to reverse our strategy from fighting fires to once again fighting floods in this province. We have had a major spring storm that just ended which brought about 100 millimetres or in excess of four inches of rain to most portions of the Souris River watershed.

The heaviest rain was concentrated in areas from Minot downstream to near Souris, Manitoba. Unofficial rain totals in some areas are as high as six inches. Such a storm is unusual for this time of year and for any normal time in the balance of the year. The Souris River is expected to rise back to the elevations of the crest that we saw several weeks ago. In other words, it is returning to flood stage, and those people who were taking down their sandbags will now have to re-erect them.

The forecast is not yet firm, but it appears that new crests will be about a foot lower than those in April. So far, there has been little rise in the river, but winds are affecting the levels. Crests on the river resulting from this storm will probably occur in up to about 10 days. Localized flooding is underway, and flows are overloading the drains. I wish to add that there are several other areas in the province where we are watching the impact of locally heavy rainfalls, including the areas close to the Riding Mountain and in the Swan River Valley.

I bring this information to the House only to indicate that we will be deploying resources in those areas.

Ms. Rosann Wowchuk (Swan River): I would like to take this opportunity to thank the minister for providing us with the information as to what is happening in the Souris Valley. Indeed, we do live in a very diverse province where all in one week we can be thinking about getting firefighters out to one part of the province, and now we are looking at how we are going to be diking rivers and protecting homes from flooding.

We hope that the rain is over in those parts of the province that have had the high rainfall. As the minister has indicated, it is in the Souris Valley that there was up to four inches of rain. In the area of the Duck Mountain and Riding Mountain, there has been as well up to four inches of rain. In fact, in my home community yesterday, the Natural Resources people and the Highways department were out cleaning out log jams in rivers to avoid a further flooding of land, but there has been some flooding in the Cowan area and also high waters in the Swan River area.

We appreciate the minister keeping us updated and hope that the necessary people will be put in place to protect people who will suffer from this flooding, no matter which part of the province they are in.