Mr. Chairman, my friend is quite correct. The head of the Coast Guard on the west coast was clearly asked if money was a problem. He said it was no problem at all.
A picture comes to my mind when I think about the shortfall of funding in the Coast Guard. The committee travelled to Prince Rupert. We have all seen second world war movies where the progress of convoys was plotted across the north Atlantic. There was a big table with a chart on it and little ships were moved across the table. When we were in Prince Rupert they were plotting the position of ships entering Prince Rupert harbour on a table. It took me back to World War II.
This is the computer age. It boggles the mind that we have to rely on moving little wooden boats across a table to show us where ships are. What good is that in foggy conditions when two ships are on a collision course and someone has to notify them of their problems given that there may be communications problems or radar problems with those vessels? What good is it? It just defies description.
The Coast Guard is sadly underfunded. There is no question about that. It is scandalous that the Coast Guard was unable to provide a continuous air supply to its divers. It is scandalous that it was unable to provide adequate hovercraft coverage for Vancouver airport.