Thank you and good day to the committee.
I'd like to express my appreciation for the opportunity to present here today. I'll try not to be redundant with regard to the comments just made. It certainly was a presentation with which I was in substantial agreement.
Our union represents about 11,000 fish harvesters in the province in about 4,000 fishing enterprises, most of which are small boats under 65 feet in length, so the search and rescue facilities are of the utmost importance to these people and their families.
Fishing has been deemed by the International Labour Organization as the most dangerous occupation in the world. On average, worldwide, something like 24,000 people annually die fishing at sea.
In this province, the minister touched on the numbers going back to 1979. I think one way to look at it is that if you start at the date of the Ocean Ranger tragedy, from that day to this, there have been more people killed in fishing fatalities at sea than in theOcean Ranger and Cougar tragedies combined, just to give an idea of the cumulative magnitude of the loss. Mostly it has been in ones, twos, and threes at a time, not 20, 30, or 50 at a time, but nonetheless, a large number of families have suffered the heartache of losing a loved one at sea.
A question one might ask is, what are we doing about it? I think everybody has to answer that question.
For our part, back in the early 1990s we saw the need for training in a number of areas, but in particular in the area of safety. With the help of the provincial government through a provincial statute, we set about forming the Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board in the province, which has as a mandate not only registration, but also the development of education and training programs for harvesters.
In the last decade, 10,000 fish harvesters in this province have received medical emergency duties training under the auspices of the board. About 8,000 have received first aid training and about 1,500 have taken radio operator certificate courses.
It's frustrating to those of us in the fishery when we hear from time to time that the Transportation Safety Board investigates an accident and issues a cavalier comment about the lack of safety culture in the fishery. I would suggest that those kinds of training numbers speak for themselves. If there is a lack of safety culture, then I guess everyone should ask this: on whose part does that lack occur?
There's more safety equipment being carried on vessels today than ever before: EPIRBs, immersion suits, life rafts, black boxes, and so on. In fact, there is a growing number of what I call success stories, where it was very clear from interviews done after the fact with the people who were involved in the loss of a vessel at sea that the training provided through the professionalization board was deemed by those involved--who ended up in the water--as being instrumental in their survival.
But having said that, I will say that obviously one fatality is one too many. The numbers have been reducing, but they're still too high. We have had cases in the recent past where the loss of life was clearly directly related to the response time for search and rescue.
I'd like to second Minister Skinner's remarks about the search and rescue personnel, the people. Certainly there have been some heroic rescues, and our comments are in no way directed towards those who are involved in what is also a very dangerous and demanding occupation.
But really, the two-tier structure we currently have for search and rescue in this province--in a developed country--is really quite staggering and totally inadequate. Out of a 168-hour week, for 128 of those hours people who are out fishing for a living are operating under a protocol of a two-hour response to a situation at sea where lives are at risk. Two hours in the North Atlantic is too long, in most cases, for people to survive. It's just as simple as that. It's a very hostile environment.
As for 40 hours with a 30-minute protocol and 128 hours with a two-hour protocol, I haven't found any evidence whatsoever to suggest that you're more likely to have a mishap during banker's hours. If anything, it's probably the other way around, because of the difficulties involved in anything that might go wrong at night.
It's a bit like having the fire department knock off at five. If you're going to have your house catch fire, you would be hoping that it happens during regular working hours, and on a weekday, not a statutory holiday. So really, what we need is a standard protocol regardless of the time.
Certainly, I think that Gander, in relation to the total area that is to be covered, which is a huge coastline, is a central location. Again, I would certainly second the minister's comments about not wanting to see any downgrading of that service out of Gander, because you have to go so far north of Gander to the tip of Labrador, where some of our people are out fishing.
If we look at response times elsewhere.... I understand the committee has heard this already, so I won't belabour it. There are numerous jurisdictions comparable to Canada, developed countries, where the response time ranges are in the 15- to 30-minute area. Judge Wells recommended 20 minutes for the offshore oil industry. Again, I would certainly support the comments of Minister Skinner that this would be an appropriate and necessary standard for everybody making their living in the hostile environment of the northwest Atlantic.
I note that Canadian Coast Guard ships, which carry bigger crews than a helicopter, have a 30-minute protocol at all times, so you can get a coast guard ship off the wharf in 30 minutes. I'm not quite sure why it has to take so long to get a helicopter in the air.
Clearly, if even a 30-minute protocol had been in effect over the last 20 years, who knows how many of those lives that were lost would have been saved? Clearly in some instances, there are some that would have been. We could debate the numbers.
We believe that the current level of coverage is totally inadequate. The people who make their living from the sea and in that kind of environment deserve a better of level of service. I believe it's a national emergency service that needs to be improved and at a level that's compatible and consistent with what is in place in numerous other jurisdictions.
With that, I'll conclude my remarks, but I would be glad to participate in any discussion.
Thank you.