Mr. Hees:

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Hon. Lionel Chevrier (Laurier):

May I

direct a question to the Minister of Transport. Can the minister tell the house what was the passenger-carrying capacity of the Bell helicopter which figured in an accident recently, and whether a public inquiry will be held into this unfortunate tragedy?

Hon. George H. Hees (Minister of Transport):

I believe the carrying capacity of that particular helicopter is three. A press release was issued by my department yesterday regarding this very unfortunate crash, and for the information of the hon. member and the house perhaps I might read it.

A technical board of inquiry has been convened to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash of a departmental helicopter at Shirley's Bay on Friday afternoon, it has been announced by the Department of Transport. Chairman of the board is A. J. Burleton, Toronto, and member is W. Gadzos, Ottawa. Both are departmental officials.

The transport department brought in two specialists from the Bell Helicopter headquarters at Fort Worth, Texas, to assist the department's team investigating the accident in which three were killed. The Bell representatives arrived on Saturday night and on Sunday morning were at the site of the wreckage with transport department personnel. Two additional experts from the plane manufacturing company arrived in Ottawa today. Plans are under way to bring the wreckage of the

helicopter from the Davidson farm machinery shed, in which it was housed over the weekend, into the Department of Transport hangar at Uplands some time today.

The board of inquiry will use the services of the visiting experts and collect evidence from eyewitnesses and others in its attempt to determine the cause of the accident. At the conclusion of the investigation, the board will submit its findings to the Minister of Transport and a summary report will be made public.

Mr. Chevrier:

The question I asked was, will it be a public inquiry?

Mr. Hees:

If it appears, following the departmental inquiry, that some useful purpose will be served by holding a public inquiry, then a public inquiry will be held.

Mr. Chevrier:

Will the inquiry be held under the Department of Transport Act or under the air regulations; and if under the latter, will the minister table the air regulations in question?

Mr. Hees:

I am afraid I cannot answer that question. I will check into it and give the hon. member an answer tomorrow.

Mr. Raoul Poulin (Beauce):

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Public Works. Has the minister given consideration to the report received by his department from the engineer who has made an investigation into recent floods in Beauce county, according to his declaration in this house on January 3?

If so, has the hon. minister reached a preliminary conclusion?

Hon. Howard C. Green (Minister of Public Works):

Mr. Speaker, I should like to thank the hon. member for Beauce for having given me notice of this question. The report received from the engineers of the Department of Public Works has been considered. The situation with regard to this unfortunate disaster is, of course, as I pointed out last week, that any request for help must come from the provincial government.

Mr. E. G. McCullough (Moose Mountain):

Mr. Speaker, I should like to direct a question to the Minister of National Health and Welfare. Has the government received recently a request for a special cost of blindness allowance to be paid for life without

Inquiries of the Ministry a means test to all blind adults over the age of 18 years? If so, what consideration has been given to this request?

Hon. J. W. Monieiih (Minister of National Health and Welfare):

Mr. Speaker, I made inquiries of my staff this morning on this very matter and actually I have not as yet received any such request although, as indicated in reply to a question by another hon. member some time ago, frankly I am expecting it.