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

MR. BUTLER: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

I present another petition today on behalf of the residents of Coomb’s Cove, St. Jacques, Boxey, St. Alban’s, English Harbour West, Wreck Cove and Belleoram, and Burgeo by the way.

Mr. Speaker, I read the prayer of the petition again:

WHEREAS we, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, have built cabins and tilts away from home 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 - I can almost recite it now, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS your government has come down hard on the thousands of cabin owners and trailer owners that are out on the 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 lands on the 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 to enjoy what is rightfully ours. We were born on this land and should have the right to enjoy it.

As in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray.

Mr. Speaker, just in response to what the minister said, I did not get a chance to get back up again. When she was trying to determine what was short-term, long-term, and indefinite. I say to her, duration of the summer is pretty short-term in Newfoundland and Labrador. That is why those people go those areas to do their camping, to enjoy the great outdoors, Mr. Speaker.

All they are asking government is to do this –

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR. BUTLER: – and I say to the minister, I think what she should do is let them go back to what they were used to. Not anything that is environmentally unfriendly, not to do that. Make sure everything is right and proper. Let them go back the way they were camping, and over this year, before next year steps in, be able to go and sit down with those people and say what is wrong, and give them the opportunity to be able to be incorporated, or whatever they want to do, if that is their wish, to make sure that they can out and enjoy the great outdoors, Mr. Speaker.

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. BUTLER: Anyway - I do not know what she said that time, but it is something about my driveway.

I can assure the minister, I am going camping this weekend, and I am going over to her district, by the way, and I will not be in a gravel pit. Still and all, I believe in what those people are fighting for, and they have a right to do what they always did. Sit down and consult with them, for glory sake. Do not be so heavy-handed.

You are discriminating against people because some areas were evicted, other areas were not. I do not know why it is, I do not know - maybe it is political districts. I cannot say that for sure.

All I say, Mr. Speaker, in closing, I have one other petition – twenty-fourth of May weekend is getting close, but I have another one for tomorrow. So, all I am asking on government is to consult with those people and see that they are given a right to enjoy the great outdoors like they have done for decades.