Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning, Minister and witnesses.
Concerning the coast guard redeployment, there is a sentence in your submission that you moved the two vessels from, I guess, the Maritimes into the Newfoundland and Labrador region. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't have more presence within our province or more presence from the coast guard within the country generally, but it says “both these harbours are a little closer to the Arctic—which is their main service area”.
About a year and a half ago, DFO had put in place, as I understand it, and was implementing a plan to station the coast guard in Labrador—it would have been the first time ever that the coast guard was stationed in Labrador—to carry out just the very type of work that is alluded to within your comments here.
What was the rationale for choosing St. John's and Argentia over, say, what was already in the works a year and a half ago, which was Goose Bay? There was a $96 million northern access initiative for Goose Bay, or Labrador generally, that was subsequently cancelled even though DFO seemed to have a rationale for it. Why now Argentia, for instance, over a presence in Labrador, which has many, many needs, from a hydrographic need to more mapping to Arctic sovereignty and all these types of things that are so vital not only to Labrador, to the province, but to the country generally?