Madam Speaker, on October 8 I raised a question about oxygen generators aboard our Victoria class submarines, but that was not the first time I have raised it. I raised it in March in the House of Commons in regard to a dangerous situation with the submarines. Then I met with the previous minister of defence in his office at DND for a couple of hours to talk about the possibility of a dangerous situation in existence on our submarines. We went through an unsatisfactory condition report that was dated October 16, 2003, which was written by the captain of one of our submarines and stated that there was a dangerous situation on the subs with respect to these oxygen generators.
We did everything responsibly to try to bring to the minister's attention that there was a dangerous situation on the subs. I think we did it in the right way. I took the minister up on his invitation to come to his office at DND and we went through each sub, actually, and the condition and status of each sub.
We asked the minister directly about the oxygen generators. At the time we did not get an answer. What I wanted to know was whether the unsatisfactory condition report was followed up and whether the changes were made as was recommended in that unsatisfactory condition report. I did not get an answer. That was in April.
Now we are in October. On October 8, I asked again about it and in fact previous to October 8 I asked about this situation. Was the safety report followed? Did the government pay any attention at all to it? Of course I did not get an answer at the time, either in the House or anywhere else.
But then, after I asked the question many times, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald reporter dug around and did get an answer on whether the report was heeded or not. The headline in the Herald on October 14 says it all: “Sub safety order was ignored; Navy denies ammunition lockers played role in Chicoutimi fire”. Obviously this was after the Chicoutimi fire, so that was the answer to my question. The safety orders were not complied with. The recommendation of the captain of a sub who said he had a dangerous situation in his boat was ignored. Then, of course, the navy denied that the ammunition lockers played a role in the Chicoutimi fire, but we found out a little later that in fact the oxygen generators did play a role in the fire.
Going back to the Halifax Herald article of October 14, I would like the minister or the parliamentary secretary to answer this question. Why was the safety order ignored with respect to these oxygen generators?