Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would certainly like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before the standing committee. Certainly the response time is the focus of my presentation and why it's important to our industry.
Challenges in the harvesting sector from the waters off Newfoundland and Labrador due to sea and weather conditions are unpredictable in a harsh environment. After the moratorium in 1992, there was a need to access species such as shrimp, crab, scallops, turbot, and seals. This led to a shift to fishing in more remote offshore areas by vessels less than 65 feet, to 24-hour and longer fishing periods, and to longer distances from the home port, for longer trips beginning in April to November.
One of the things that has also driven the industry, and not only in larger vessels, is that the 65-footers are making five- and six-day trips. They are out in all weather. The 34-foot-11s, which even fish in the bay, are operating 24 hours around the clock because of fuel costs, to cut down, to try to even make ends meet. So the fishery, wherever you look at it, from the inshore to the offshore, is no longer eight in the morning till four in the evening; it's 24 hours around the clock.
Harvesters have certainly committed to safety. In the last number of years, since 2002, marine emergency duty training, MED A1 and A3, has been delivered to more than 10,000 Newfoundland commercial fish harvesters. That is a number that we're proud of because we certainly believe that safety is very important. More than 9,000 Newfoundland harvesters have received marine first aid training. It is a federal and provincial requirement for harvesters to complete MED training for at least one crew member on each vessel and for one crew member on each vessel to have marine first aid. Fishing vessels are also required to have certified masters and certified officers of the watch.
Our harvesters are some of the hardest trained in the world. Through education, training, safety equipment, and good seamanship practices, we are a safer industry today, but there is always room for improvement.
Since 1999 there have been 77 vessels lost at sea and 42 deaths related to the fishing industry. Aside from harvesters themselves, many others share in the responsibility for delivering safety to the fishing industry. Some of these agencies--I'm sure you're aware of them, but I'll repeat them anyhow--are DFO and line departments such as fisheries management, the Canadian Coast Guard, the office of boating safety, marine communications and traffic systems, search and rescue, and other marine programs. Over the last number of years, Transport Canada has made changes to the industry that have cost, yes, collectively, millions of dollars to the industry just to invest in safety. The transportation board, the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Professional Fish Harvesters, the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, Memorial University, the provincial labour department, the provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, and yes, now, the insurance underwriters are breathing down our backs as well.
If you take all of these agencies and put them together, they have two common themes that keep repeating. I can hear the Transportation Safety Board and Transport Canada now when I sit in on CMAC meetings. You argue about the phasing in of certain electronic equipment or the phasing in of changes that you have to make to your vessel. They stand up there before you and they preach and they say quite clearly, you can't put a price on life. I agree. You can't put a price. You can't replace it.
The other thing they keep preaching, whatever course you take, whatever piece of equipment you put on.... I heard reference to the EPIRB a little earlier. People were putting EPIRBs on their boats. People were putting DSC radios on their boats and the black box, as it's called locally, the global positioning. They were doing it for one reason, and Transport Canada kept preaching: we have to reduce the response time to increase the chance of survival. Even to a first-aider, who takes first aid, that is one of the things you're told. Even with a heart attack, the faster you can start to help that person, the better his chances of survival. The fishing industry wrapped their hands around this equipment and put it on their vessels to try to reduce the response time.
The Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary--I heard reference to it here today--is a non-profit, volunteer organization used for search and rescue resources in the Newfoundland and Labrador region. Its members and their vessels respond to search and rescue incidents in the waters around the province, and occasionally they participate in search and rescue prevention activities. Ninety-two per cent of the membership is involved in the fishing industry. Each year, Newfoundland and Labrador regional auxiliaries respond to 35% of marine search and rescue incidents. That's an amazing figure. I'm a member of the coast guard auxiliary as well. I volunteer my time at no cost. As a matter of fact, in most cases it costs me money, even though I do get a little bit for my fuel or my vessel. That's it. The last search and rescue incident I was on, I lost my fishing day, and it took me 11 days before I could get back to my gear. That's what it cost me. I was tied onto the wharf for weather. So the fish harvesters of this province are contributing highly to search and rescue in this country.
In Ireland, Norway, and the North Sea, emergency aircraft must be in the air in 15 to 45 minutes. Canada currently has three levels of response times for search and rescue: 30 minutes from 8 to 4; weekend coverage; and a two-hour response time on holidays and evenings.
The North Atlantic is a harsh environment. Harvesters who work in this environment deserve emergency response times that are second to none. Every second counts during at-sea emergencies. I heard a reference here earlier to the oil industry and the location of search and rescue. You take the number of harvesters on the water and compare it with the number working on the rigs at any time in the season. I don't think you'll find any comparison. When you talk about from Cape Saint Mary to the Labrador coast, I don't think you have any consideration of where search and rescue money should be spent. It's the most centrally located and can provide service all around the area. We heard discussions here this morning about 800, 900, 2,000 passengers on an ocean-going carrier. I don't think it's in anyone's dreams that you'd be able to handle such a situation. That is a catastrophe, not an incident. We should be able to deliver the best possible way that we can go.
How do we achieve a better standard of response? We can improve response times, and most likely there will be a cost. Our fishing industry does not operate from 8 to 4. Gander is the optimum location. It provides the best search and rescue service for the entire province, for both commercial and recreational vessels. Response times are critical. It's impossible for someone to deny the importance of search and rescue to fishing communities. Scott alluded a little earlier to the number of communities in his district, and that's only one district. There are several others with just as many and more.
The fishing industry is one of the most dangerous industries in the world. Finding ways to improve safety will be a continuous process. Increased safety means increased safety measures and saving lives, but we all need to be doing everything to ensure that fish harvesters are coming home to their families and their communities.
Many things are in our control, like proper training. But those response times are not; they're in yours.
I'm assuming you'll let me know when my time is up.
One thing I want to leave you with is that safety must be a shared responsibility. Since 2002 we think the fishing industry has taken more than its share of the burden. We'd like you to act as some of your departments, Transport Canada, the Transport Safety Board, are saying—you can't put a price on life—and I think we'll be on the same lines.
Thank you.