Mr. Speaker, I totally agree. This is what I said. The government is transferring responsibilities that already belonged to the Department of Transport in the past. In fact, this is simply reverting back. It must be well understood, with the bill, that what is being transferred to the Department of Transport was already under the Department of Transport in the past. It was transferred to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. It is now transferred back to the Department of Transport.
The real problem is the bill. Of course, it is totally a mechanics bill. When this bill comes into force, who will oversee the transfer? Who will be responsible for its implementation? Of course, it will be the Department of Transport, but who will it be in the field? It is the Canadian Coast Guard. If it does not have the means, like now, to fulfill its mandates, even though a mechanical transfer would be made between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Department of Transport, we will not be ahead. It does not solve the real problem.
Indeed, the real problem is that the Canadian Coast Guard is an underfunded agency and that, to fulfill its mandates, it needs funding. It needs to renew its fleet. It needs to renew its equipment. During 10 to 15 years, the government did not fund it enough. This means that we are now finding ourselves in a very difficult situation. We will have to invest from $140 million to $150 million a year, which should have been done in the past. It means that, today, we would not have a $1 billion problem on our hands.