Mr. Chairman, first, I want to congratulate the hon. member on how he presented his arguments. All these issues were raised on a number of occasions by the industry.
However, as regards certain issues raised in the debate—and I am not taking sides—I would like to ask the hon. member to consider the following points.
He mentioned the issue of competitiveness. He said that there could be a smaller number of users because of the costs. I am not sure that this is true. If it is the case, I am sure that it is not good from a competition point of view. If there are some users of services who have to pay for costs and others who do not, this would normally have an impact on competition.
There is also the issue of users. Users pay reasonable costs. Would the hon. member agree with this type of costs charged to users, if we can find a way, through negotiations and discussions with the industry, to impose reasonable costs that could be negotiated?
There are currently representations being made in this regard. As to whether or not they will be successful, it is too early to tell. I invite the hon. member to reflect on this.
The other issue raised by his colleague earlier has to do with asking us—and this is a request from all sides—to find additional resources for the Coast Guard. This would produce another shortfall. Did the hon. member take that into consideration?
We can always say that we will find money elsewhere, but sometimes it is harder than it seems. As the hon. member for Egmont pointed out, there is the issue of health care, the issue of the military, the issues relating to the environment and the other pressures that the government has to deal with.
I will stop here and ask the hon. member to comment.