Mr. Chairman, we also visited the facilities in Newfoundland, as well as in Quebec and the maritime provinces. The situation is the same in Newfoundland. Things are the same there because there has been no funding in past years, except perhaps just recently.
Since 1993 or so, the coast guard has seen its budget slashed quite drastically. Its budget has gone down, not up. As well, it has been asked to become a tax collector for the government.
Could we find out what the situation is in other countries. Does the U.S. Coast Guard collect fees for instance? Absolutely not. It reports to the U.S. Army and has a sizeable budget, compared to here.
In my opinion, the Canadian Coast Guard is a totally forgotten institution, one that has been totally destroyed since 1993, and has received nothing. Budgets have just started to go up again very recently, but that is probably the result of September 11 and the wake-up call we got from that .