Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Anjou-Rivière-des-Prairies for raising this motion.
Let me begin by informing the House, as the previous member has, that the St. Lawrence seaway is truly a national treasure. He pointed out that it is one of the transportation corridors and an important link in the economic well-being of all of Canada.
The hon. member indicated, and should understand, that the 2,000 miles of the waterway extend from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Thunder Bay, which is located at the head of the Great Lakes. Aside from the lakes and rivers of the system, ships traverse 6 canals and 15 locks, of which 13 locks are Canadian and 2 locks are American, before they reach the end of the seaway.
Since the St. Lawrence seaway opened in 1959, Canada has not stood still in advancing navigation in the seaway.
Indeed, we have been able to take advantage of much new technology that has been developed to combat ice formation in locks and canals. This technology has allowed the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority to add a number of days to the shipping season. The navigation season on the waterway from Thunder Bay to Montreal now extends from late March to late December.
Current technology, however, does not permit us to keep every lock and the canal system open to navigation throughout the entire year. In order to sail the seaway in winter we would need to keep the locks and canals ice free, have buoys in place year round, as well as have many additional icebreakers to escort vessels and keep the broken ice moving throughout the system.
It is quite simply impossible for an icebreaker, and the member should understand that his motion is faulty in this respect, or any other vessel to enter a lock filled with ice without causing extensive damage to the lock infrastructure.
Therefore escorting vessels above the first lock at St. Lambert would be next to impossible, even with extensive retrofitting of the lock and canal structures.
As my hon. friend may be aware, the federal government has a primary mandate to provide flood control services on the upper St. Lawrence River. The Canadian Coast Guard is responsible for providing these services and has done so since 1904.
Icebreakers operate in the river throughout the winter to keep a channel open as far as Montreal for the unobstructed movement of broken ice downstream. This activity prevents ice jams from forming and also permits the passage of ships except for the periods, and I am sure that the member would recognize this, when there have been abnormally severe weather and ice conditions.
The river has been kept open year-round since the late 1950s.
Flood control is not a by-product of keeping the port of Montreal open, as some would have us believe. The opposite is the case.
I think it is very important that people understand that icebreakers are in the St. Lawrence to prevent potentially devastating floods.
By ensuring that the St. Lawrence River remains navigable year-round as far as the port of Montreal, the Canadian Coast Guard does support the maritime commerce and consequent industry and port employment along the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay River.
There is also a need, then, to keep the maritime traffic moving through the Gulf of St. Lawrence to allow vessels access to the St. Lawrence River.
In the motion presented before this House my hon. friend refers to the effective allocation of the icebreakers in operation in eastern Canada.
I am happy to report to the House that a fleet resources review study was undertaken by the Canadian Coast Guard in 1990 to respond effectively to broad responsibilities in high priority areas of safety and environmental protection while improving efficiency and reducing costs.
Following this study, a fleet restructuring plan was enacted. The plan was phased over a three year period and involved increasing multi-tasking and double crewing which is known in the trade as lay-day system.
To improve our resource utilization the coast guard removed 10 ships from active service and reallocated fleet units between the regions. The reallocations were based on achieving the best match of operational requirements and equipment capability in each region to ensure multi-tasking capability nationwide.
The Canadian Coast Guard has retained the ability to redeploy icebreaking resources where and when needed as the situations dictate while it has trimmed excess capacity.
For example, last year from February 3 to March 5 two powerful icebreakers were redeployed in the maritime region to assist three icebreakers and one air cushion vehicle from the Laurentian region to break up the ice jams in the Lac St. Pierre region which were causing extensive flooding along the river between Montreal and Trois Rivieres.
The east coast icebreaking fleet consists of one heavy icebreaker, one heavy icebreaking supply tug, four medium icebreakers, 13 light icebreakers and one icebreaker hovercraft. Of these, eight are based in the maritime region of the coast guard, six are based in the Laurentian region, four are located in the Newfoundland region, and two are located in the Great Lakes region.
All of these icebreakers are in full operation at this time in eastern Canada, preventing flooding and escorting ships on the St. Lawrence River.
Historically problematic ice conditions begin in the upper St. Lawrence River and progress through the season eastward to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as the hon. member would know. Heavy ice conditions can simultaneously occur in different areas such as the east coast of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence depending on the influence of weather systems.
As a result of the ice jams experienced during the winter of 1993, the Canadian Coast Guard developed an action plan to implement short and long term solutions to try to prevent a similar occurrence, Mother Nature's abilities to surprise notwithstanding.
Several studies of the St. Lawrence River and Lac St. Pierre were done to evaluate methods of increasing water currents and ice evaluation in problem areas, constructing and placing more efficient steel booms and repairing man-made islands to help maintain a solid ice coverage outside the main shipping channel and analyzing the links between snow and ice coverage, river currents, water levels, wind and tide in the developments of ice jams.
The Canadian Coast Guard is absolutely committed to the provision of icebreaking services on the St. Lawrence River up to Montreal in support of year-round accessibility for shipping and in order to provide the necessary flood control measures for the safety of the local population along the St. Lawrence River.
There are no plans at this time to change the number or capacity of Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers in eastern Canada. As my hon. friend can see, we are actively addressing the most important aspects of service delivery to Canadians.