Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport.
At a meeting of the of the Société de développement du Saint-Laurent on November 23, the commissioner of the Coast Guard refused to rule out the possibility that the cost of icebreaking would be charged directly to the users of the St. Lawrence, which would mean that Quebec shipowners would have to bear nearly half of all the new costs charged to shipowners for Coast Guard services.
How does the minister explain his government's contemplating making Quebec shipowners pay the cost of icebreaking on the St. Lawrence, when this service is free in the North?