Hon. Frank Pitura (Acting Minister of Natural Resources): I have a ministerial statement on behalf of the Minister of Natural Resources (Mr. Cummings).

Unfortunately, heavy rain again struck the Souris River watershed over the weekend with 25 to 35 millimetres of precipitation reported in most regions of the watershed including adjoining areas of Saskatchewan and North Dakota. The additional precipitation will cause the tributaries of the Souris River to rise somewhat but will only slow the rate of fall of the river. The additional heavy rain will also delay the drying of flooded fields and saturated soils in the watershed by a week to 10 days. Meanwhile, the Pembina River received close to 25 millimetres of rain in the area from Turtle Mountain to Rock Lake. This will increase tributary flows but will only reduce the rate of fall in the flooded area from Rock Lake to Swan Lake. Some flooding of lower areas is likely from Swan Lake to Windygates.

The Assiniboine River watershed downstream from St. Lazare received almost 25 millimetres of rain on the weekend. This additional precipitation will reduce the rate of fall of the Assiniboine from Miniota to Portage la Prairie, but rises are not expected. As well, substantial rainfall on the weekend in the Red River watershed from Grand Forks to Emerson is likely to reduce the rate of fall of the Red River in Manitoba during the next 10 days.

Weather conditions remain unstable. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is calling for further precipitation later this week. Thank you.

Mr. Stan Struthers (Dauphin): I want to thank the Minister for Government Services for presenting us with this update on the flood conditions in several parts of our province on behalf of the Minister of Natural Resources. So I thank him for updating us.

Madam Speaker, we on this side of the House join with the minister in wishing all the best to those communities lying along the Souris River watershed and the Assiniboine River watershed, those people living along the Pembina River who are going through a very tough spring. Also, we want to wish well the farmers who are still trying to scratch their way onto the land, trying to find some places on their quarter sections that are dry enough to actually get some seeding done. We are hoping that Mother Nature will co-operate with their efforts to get out and do their seeding this spring.

This presented a number of problems for farmers, in terms of deadlines for crop insurance, which we are hoping the government can move on, and also it presents some problems and some challenges for this government to work co-operatively with the local officials to co-ordinate the immediate drainage of farm areas in the southwest and other parts of our province which right now are experiencing very wet, saturated conditions.

So we thank the minister for this update, and we hope for all the best in these areas, in these watersheds that are very wet this spring. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

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