Mr. Chair, I very much appreciate the question.
It is very expensive to deliver anything to the Arctic, whether by ship or by air, although by ship is to be preferred, and I believe our government should provide incentives for people to use lower cost shipping instead of higher cost air.
As for what has happened with the service fee of the coast guard through DFO, I'm told that it's under review by the department but they have extended the moratorium on charging that northern marine service fee for the past two years pending this review. We are generally pleased that the boom hasn't fallen yet, although we do understand that DFO is looking for revenue opportunities. We just strongly believe, because of the fragility of the fishery and the high costs, that the north should be exempted, because it's already terribly expensive.
One other minor point I'll mention is that although we're grateful for the moratorium, there is a concern that there was an arbitrary line drawn south of 60, so a couple of communities like Sanikiluaq, where vessels have to transverse the Arctic Circle but then go to a southern destination below 60, have not been exempted from the fee increase. We don't think the moratorium was quite fairly applied in the last year, and I've written to the minister about that.
We are grateful that overall the moratorium has been continued for the last two years, but it will have to be addressed, and we hope that it's going to be permanently eliminated.
Thank you very much for the question.