Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Egmont for this excellent question. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is very proud to be associated with 4,600 volunteer members of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary. Each year working side by side with Canadian coast guard officers they save over 200 lives across the country.
Today I was pleased to sign a five year contribution agreement which will provide $22.5 million to cover the costs to the auxiliary of search and rescue operations, education, training, insurance and out of pocket expenses. We thank these volunteer people very much.