Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I certainly recognize the fact that one shipping accident anywhere, whether it's the Arctic, the Great Lakes, particularly the St. Lawrence Seaway, Halifax, Vancouver, the B.C. coast, could negate any savings in a very short period of time, whether it's through pollution clean-up or significant government resources to even re-establish a fishery should an accident occur.
On the Port of Vancouver alone, my last number had $80 billion of commerce going through that port each year. If, for some reason, a ship becomes stranded, for example, at First Narrows, that could shut the port down for a week.
I'm not saying it's going to happen, but we're there to help prevent it. Those are the jobs of our officers, to make sure that doesn't happen, whether it's the St. Lawrence, the Fraser River, or anywhere.
We're responsible for the safe and efficient movement of shipping traffic in Canada, and with the decrease in the number of officers, it's going to become more and more challenging to continue to deliver the levels of service we have currently.