Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to speak today on this motion. I listened with care to the speakers the last time this motion came up for debate. It is certainly an emotional issue in Newfoundland and other parts of the country, given the difficulties and the tragedies that have occurred over the years.
We are reminded of the Ocean Ranger disaster way back in 1982. That was a disaster in which many people were killed, by the way, on a rig that people said could never sink. How many times have we, in history, been told that a piece of technology, a ship or a balloon for instance, has been developed and that it is unsinkable? It seems that when these claims are made, in fact, many times they are proven to be untrue, and in the case of ships, sometimes on their very first voyage.
However, in the case in question, a number of people were killed, a result which points to the fact that there are inadequacies in search and rescue services for workers in the Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil industry.
A royal commission was convened in the wake of the disaster. It recommended that a fully equipped search and rescue helicopter be located at the airport nearest the offshore facility, which would be in St. John's. To date, the recommendation has never been realized.
I know we get into an argument here and the government gets into an argument about costs. It is concerned about the cost of having this service available. However, as with anything we do in our country, there is a cost.
In the city of Winnipeg, we currently have a debate going on about whether the possible benefits of having a police helicopter are worth the additional expense. We wonder if it is going to be beneficial in catching people involved in fleeing from police in high-speed chases and whether we could perhaps reduce the number of high-speed chases and the risk to lives when they occur by having this helicopter in the air.
Sure, there is a cost to this helicopter. However, on balance, it has probably been proven, through its use in other jurisdictions and cities across North America and probably elsewhere around the world, that in fact there is a benefit to having that helicopter in place. I think that can be proven here as well. How many people have to die before governments step in and do the right thing?
The previous speaker from British Columbia certainly made the point that wherever there are offshore oil platforms, whether they be on the east coast or the west coast, having proper search and rescue is very important.
In addition to the offshore oil industry, fishing vessels are in constant operation in the offshore areas of Newfoundland and Labrador. Several months after the Cougar helicopter tragedy, a fishing vessel sank in the same offshore area during what are considered off-hours for search and rescue services. The response time for search and rescue services during these off-hours is inadequate. The problem is further compounded by the distance of the search and rescue unit from this area.
As a matter of fact, I believe that at a certain point the search and rescue people were involved in a training exercise. In fact, I do not think they were even in the province and they had to be called back.
The Cougar air disaster is certainly very current in people's minds and certainly the sole survivor, Robert Decker, is the only person who is available to talk about what happened in that particular accident.
Search and rescue is the responsibility of the Department of National Defence. It does have very adequate well trained teams available. However, once again, it is one thing to have trained people available, but they have to be available when the accident happens.
As I recall from the previous series of speeches on the motion, one of the members said that the crews were on a schedule. They are available more hours during the day and less hours during the evening. A crash does not time itself as to when rescue crews are or are not available. A disaster can occur on an oil rig any time of the day or night. The crew has to be available, has to be resourced and has to be ready to move at a moment's notice.
If we cover all the bases with a helicopter, in addition to whatever facilities are available right now, then we do the best possible service to our men and women working on these rigs.
This is not only an issue of people working in the oil industry. People work in the fishing industry and their boats can be out in the ocean at any given time. When they are in distress, response has to be immediate.
There cannot be any questions of a crew not being available because it is training in a different province. There cannot be any questions about the crew not being available because it is on limited hours during the day. As I indicated, a disaster does not plan itself at the optimum time when crews are available. We need the most possible resources put to this task. We will benefit by this over the long haul.
Why the government would be reluctant to support this motion is suspect in my mind. A price cannot be put on the safety of workers. If we look at the airline industry, the government is only too quick to say that weather affects flights and so on, so it has to be on guard all the time. What is the difference between a group of passengers flying on an airplane versus people on a fishing boat? When the weather turns bad and rescue efforts have to be initiated, the facilities need to be there.
The government is making moves to allow airlines to lessen their requirements to keep track of their safety issues. The government is being contradictory here. On the one hand, it talks about the importance of air safety, yet it is not prepared to put out the extra money for a helicopter to be in areas where there are potential problems with oil rigs or fishing vessels, et cetera. The government has to take a consistent approach and consistent action. It cannot pick and choose its options and support one particular part of safety but not the other.