Well, I guess it's been ongoing, but I think with all the tragedies that we've spoken about here today, surely God we've learned enough from them that we have the ability. I think everybody has the ability. I think the politicians and the federal government have to take more responsibility to ensure that we don't have these ongoing tragedies. Whether they're small or large, one is too many.
I'm not here today to challenge the communities, because that's not my job. I want fairness. I think the powers that be should have a response put in place as minimal as possible for time, whether it's in Gander or St. John's. They have to be responsible people. I know that sometimes politics are involved, but I think this is too important.
Going back to the Ocean Ranger, someone at that time should have had some responsibility. These boys, or men, or people should not even have been working that night. We all knew it was the worst storm in history. And surely God, ahead of time, I hope we've improved, and we know that even if it's a small disaster, these men of ours—fishermen or whoever—should not be out in the Atlantic working.
It wasn't fit. Anyone who was out in that never had a chance of survival. But it hurts when it happens, I'll tell you.
I think some precautions could have been taken. Let's learn from these tragedies. Communication to me and my family failed more than 100%, and I never want for a family to get as little communication as we received. I still hurt over it, because there was none, absolutely none. I fought with search and rescue on the plane to tell me what happened. They couldn't tell me.
Like I said, I had to phone my clergy for him to find out what was the truth, 12 hours after, and with everybody in Newfoundland knowing. I think it's because I was remote from the area; I was not in the city and the communities around the north shore and all those places. It was just me in Corner Brook and I had no one to turn to. I was getting horrible answers.
Like I said, I think that money.... What's a life? I mean, we have to communicate, and as for safety, in my books it was unsafe for these people. Training is a must. I don't know about now, but there were fellows on that rig who weren't trained and took responsible jobs. I hope my son wasn't one of them, because he was trained in some fields.... He took less of a trade waiting to go somewhere else and it cost him his life.