Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport and was inspired by Mr. Creelman MacArthur of Halifax.
While the ports of Halifax and Saint John are ice free year round, the federal government spends millions of dollars annually to ice break the St. Lawrence. This creates a situation of the government indirectly subsidizing inland ports at the expense of those on the east coast.
At a time when the east coast economy is the hardest hit in Canada, why should Halifax and Saint John have to compete not only with inland ports but with the federal subsidies as well?