MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Member for the District of Port de Grave.

MR. BUTLER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I stand today to present another petition on behalf of the residents of Catalina, Dunfield, Trinity, Cannings Cove, Aspen Cove, New Bonaventure, Port Rexton, Bonavista, Elliston, Musgravetown, Clarenville, Princeton, Sunnyside, and Shoal Harbour. The prayer of the petition, Mr. Speaker, I know we have to read it into the records each and every day:

WHEREAS we the people of Newfoundland and Labrador have always built cabins or tilts away from our homes for hunting, fishing, berry picking or just spending time up in the country, or places around our shores, sometimes just to get away from the stress of everyday living, a place to relax and enjoy the great outdoors; and

WHEREAS your government has come down hard on the thousands of cabin and trailer owners who are out on our land with eviction notices, and forcing them to move without providing them with an alternative; and

WHEREAS Kruger Inc. has timber rights to approximately one-third of all forested land on this Island, and is refusing the vast majority of applications for cabin development;

WHEREUPON your petitioners call upon all Members of the House of Assembly to urge government to have compassion on the citizens of this fair Province, and allow them the right enjoy what is rightfully ours. We were born on this land and we should have the right to enjoy it.

And as in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, since I presented the last couple of petitions, I have had several phone calls from residents in some of those areas. I will not mention any names or any communities, but some of the stories are very touching. There is one individual who has been a trapper for the last fifty-five or sixty years, who had a little, small place up in the country. It was used solely if he ever went up hunting and the weather came on and he could not get back out of the country, it was a place for him to go, rather than probably be caught out in the wilderness and, God knows, lose his life.

Well, last year, do you know what? Environmental officials went in there and they burned that little place; burned his traps, burned his snowshoes and the whole bit. There is no such thing as consulting with those people and saying this is not right or you should not do this. I am sure he would have been satisfied to sit down and do what was right. I have also been advised that this little place that he had there was not in a watershed area; it was something that was there for forty-five or fifty years, and it was used solely for that purpose, Mr. Speaker.

I have had calls from people who use what they call the Ming’s Pit. I have had calls from people who were in the Whiskey Pit. Those people will tell you, yes, there were issues there, that they did not like what was going on there, but the majority of them, Mr. Speaker, thought that they should have been consulted before someone went in there and just told them to get out or else. That is not fair, Mr. Speaker.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. BUTLER: My hon. colleague, the Minister of Environment and Conservation, is asking me, how many did we burn? I do not care who burned them. I do not care who burned them, if it was the former Administration or whoever, it is not right. Those individuals should have been consulted. It does not matter to me who is in power. I am not doing this because you are in power now. That is not the issue, Mr. Speaker. Those people are just asking to treated fairly. Whether it was done by our Administration or the present Administration, it is definitely not right.

All they are asking is for government to consult with them, to see if we can come to some conclusion. Then, people are saying: Why are there places still on this Island where it did not happen, what happened at the Whiskey Pit? People are saying: Is it because there is a new development going up to The Wilds golf course. People are asking: Is that why they did not want it there?

I know the minister is dealing with those people, and trying to come to a successful conclusion to it - they are looking at a couple of pieces of land - and hopefully that will be done. Mr. Speaker, that is all those people are asking for. They are asking that their Members in the House of Assembly would get the petitions from them, as well, and present them. That is all they want, Mr. Speaker.