Mr. Chairman, in no way did I criticize Coast Guard staff. I did not criticize Coast Guard employees in any way. What I said, and what I asked for, was that it be given the funding required to provide the services, to have acceptable equipment available and to be able to work in reasonable conditions, which is not the case in many areas.
Take the example of the fleet. With an obsolete fleet—the average age of the large vessels is 22 years—that has never, or virtually never, been repaired, it is fair to wonder about the equipment these people have at their disposal to provide services.
Obviously, a few vessels have been added over the years, but very few. Ask these people what kind of equipment they have. Go to the east coast or west coast and see the conditions in which these people are working.
We toured coast guard facilities, particularly those in the Maritimes and in eastern Quebec. They had just received laptop computers. They had computers, but they were virtually non functional for years. It is as simple as that.
However, I remind my colleague that if we compare the Canadian Coast Guard to the American Coast Guard, the contrast is stark. Yet, Canada and Quebec together have the longest coastline in the world. Our coast guard should be bigger than the American Coast Guard. However, this is not the case. Far from it.