Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today and ask about some new proposed Transport Canada regulations, which to people in northern Saskatchewan are known as the Liberal canoe registry.
People at home might wonder what a Liberal canoe registry. I will tell them.
These new regulations would require individuals who operate commercial vessels, taking people onto the water for money, including outfitters, guides, adventure tourism operators, commercial fishermen, to take a course commonly known as a captain's licence type course, which they can only currently receive in Vancouver or in Halifax.
First, travelling to Vancouver or Halifax from northern Saskatchewan is quite expensive. Second, the cost of the course itself is approximately $350. It is a three day course. It is completely useless for my constituents in northern Saskatchewan, many of whom have spent their entire lives on the water. A requirement of the course is to literally learn how to navigate in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That is quite different from navigating on a creek or a small lake in northern Saskatchewan. This type of one size fits all regulation is completely misguided and unneeded.
What looks like a good idea cooked up in a downtown Ottawa office tower, looks only half baked on the ground in northern Saskatchewan. I would like to challenge the Transport Canada bureaucrats and the Liberal politicians, who are pushing this, to come to northern Saskatchewan and look on the ground. Come and see what is going on in northern Saskatchewan and then try to tell me that this is a good idea.
I do not know how anyone could possibly think it would be a good idea to send northern aboriginal guides to a captain's licence course in Vancouver or Halifax. Why should they learn how to navigate in the middle of the Pacific Ocean so they can have some employment for three months in northern Saskatchewan, taking people out and guiding on traditional hunts? This is utterly ridiculous.
These regulations, if enacted, will have a very real negative effect on employment in my riding in northern Saskatchewan. I come from the poorest riding in the country, with the lowest average income of any riding. Over half of my constituents are aboriginal. Employment opportunities are very limited and a lot of the employment opportunities that do exist for aboriginals and otherwise are in the industries of outfitting, guiding, commercial fishermen and adventure tourism. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
If these regulations are enacted, people will lose their jobs for no good reason. They will have to go to Vancouver or Halifax and take a captain's licence course. They cannot afford this. It costs $350 to take a three day course. This is completely ridiculous.
We have seen a government that obviously does not care and a government that obviously does not understand northern Saskatchewan. If the government did understand, it would not try to force this down the throats of the residents of my riding, which is what they are trying to do.
We have seen $2 billion sent down the creek with the--