Thank you for that.
As a coastal British Columbian, I found it unique and very satisfying to see the government put forward the $1.5-billion investment in the oceans protection plan, which brought together a historic combination of ministries, from the Ministry of Transport to the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment and Natural Resources, to figure out how we could best protect the Pacific coast. One of the things that came out of that was the reopening of Canadian Coast Guard stations on the Pacific that had been closed in the previous decade.
The reason I call the oceans protection plan significant is that it is a holistic approach. Rather than thinking department by department or problem by problem, which really is the more conventional way of looking at this, the holistic approach looks at how we protect the oceans and what we are protecting them from.
The amount of marine traffic is only increasing, and that creates the risk of spills. Abandoned vessels create risks to the oceans. There are safety concerns in the oceans. Fundamental to doing a better job is improving data on the marine environment—that was a big part of the oceans protection plan—and understanding how oil behaves and breaks down and what the best ways are to deal with it under different marine conditions. The oceans protection plan funded over 60 projects to restore coastal aquatic habitats through the coastal restoration fund, so $2 billion was historic—it was $1.5 billion, and we recently added $2 billion to continue that work.
One of the key initiatives that were funded through that, which I think was extremely significant, was to develop an opportunity for coastal indigenous communities to participate in their historic activity, which is protecting the oceans and the mariners on them. We have provided funding of more than $12 million to over 40 indigenous communities to purchase search and rescue boats and equipment to be able to participate in the marine emergency response of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary. We co-launched the Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary, the first indigenous-led auxiliary organization, with units in eight first nations communities along the B.C. coast.
I want to say that this set of work represents an integrated approach. I want to acknowledge the leaders of the Canadian Coast Guard for really moving outside of our typical and traditional approach and becoming partners with first nations on all three coasts.
Last, I'll just mention that I had a chance to spend a week in the Arctic, along with the acting regional director general of the Fisheries branch for the Arctic and with members of the Canadian Coast Guard. I went to a Coast Guard base in Rankin Inlet, where the captain of the ship was a young Inuit woman, with other Inuit and women on her crew. It was so important for them to be able to be part of protecting people and protecting waters through the support of the OPP in the Arctic.