Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by thousands of people from my riding regarding the provision of a freight and passenger ferry service between Port au Basques, Newfoundland and North Sydney, Nova Scotia.
This service is a constitutional obligation of the federal government and a right held by all people of Newfoundland and Labrador under term 32 of the Newfoundland Act, 1949. The petitioners feel that this service is a vital link between the province of Newfoundland and the rest of Canada. It is critical to ensuring the economic well-being of our province.
Petitioners feel that the provision of high quality, customer oriented ferry transportation services on this route must be guaranteed on a timely basis and at reasonable rates to users. Therefore, the petitioners call upon parliament to amend the Canada Labour Code, Part I to prevent any disruption of this essential service as a result of strikes or lockouts, and to increase the federal funding available to Marine Atlantic for this particular ferry service.