Debates of May 28th, 2009

Fisheries and Oceans--Main Estimates, 2009-10

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Madam Chair, is the minister confirming that she is indeed maintaining the science program for those numbers of years or is she increasing it?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, since 2005-06, funding for science has increased by $10.3 million, from $220 million to $230 million in 2009-10.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Madam Chair, could the minister advise us on the status of the scientific research vessels that have been attempted to be put in place for a number of years?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, the process has been gauged for the three science vessels and I believe the tendering process is closing very soon.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Madam Chair, I have two quick questions.

First, when does she expect these very essential scientific research vessels to be in the water giving us essential science?

Second, NAFO has increased the northern shrimp quota. Will the minister confirm that she will base her management decisions on historic allocations?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, we do have, as I said, some management plans that are still not completed but they will be out soon.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Madam Chair, I am pleased to stand this evening on behalf of the constituents of Fleetwood—Port Kells to discuss the important work done by the Canadian Coast Guard.

Our government recognizes the value of the Coast Guard and, as the estimates show, is investing in the modernization of its fleet and operations to meet increasing demand for its services.

The value of the Canadian Coast Guard is very clear to the 2,900 people the Coast Guard rescues each year. Its worthiness is evident to the crews of the 300-plus vessels it escorts through ice annually. Its importance is obvious to Canadians who live in the Arctic and for whom the arrival of a Coast Guard icebreaker is not just a welcome signal of spring, but a vital source of food and supplies. These people know first-hand the value of the Coast Guard, as do fish harvesters, pleasure boaters, shippers and others who use its services.

However, like an iceberg, with most of its mass below the water's surface, much of the Coast Guard's work is not immediately visible to Canadians, even though it has an enormous impact on them.

On an average day, 4,400 Coast Guard employees achieve the following: save 8 lives; assist 55 people in 19 search and rescue missions; service 55 aids to navigation; handle 1,127 marine radio contacts; manage 2,346 commercial ship movements; escort 4 commercial ships through ice; carry out 12 fisheries patrols; support 3 hydrographic missions and 8 scientific surveys; deal with 3 marine pollution reports; survey the bottom of 5 kilometres of navigation channels; and, do all the supporting work needed to accomplish these things each and every day.

That is quite the to-do list, carried out on three oceans, the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and other major waterways.

I will provide some details. Canada's maritime search and rescue system is one of the world's most effective. The Canadian Coast Guard agency responds to and coordinates the resolution of about 6,000 maritime incidents each year, making search and rescue the Coast Guard's largest single expenditure.

The Coast Guard is an integral part of the multi-department federal search and rescue program led by the Minister of National Defence. The agency is responsible for the 5.3 million square kilometre maritime component of the federal system. It is supported by the Canadian Coast Guard auxiliary, a dedicated group of 4,300 civilian volunteers and 1,200 vessels with whom the Coast Guard has a long and proud relationship and to which it devotes about $5 million in contribution agreements each year.

The Coast Guard also protects the marine environment. The Canadian Coast Guard is mandated as the lead federal agency for all ship-source spills of oil and unknown source spills into waters under Canadian jurisdiction. It monitors and responds to more than 1,200 spills each year.

Navigation safety, that is safe and accessible waterways and safe, economical and efficient movement of marine traffic, is a key Coast Guard preoccupation. The Coast Guard supplies and maintains more than 17,000 marine aids to safe navigation, from buoys, to radar, to GPS systems. Its maritime communications and traffic services program and its waterway management activities are also essential services that help ensure waterways are safe for vessels and mariners.

Of course, more highly visible are the powerful red and white icebreakers escorting ships, freeing vessels stuck in ice, maintaining open channels through ice, opening up frozen harbours, providing ice routing advice and resupplying isolated northern communities. They also provide important flood control for communities along the St. Lawrence by breaking up ice jams.

Although the Coast Guard does not have a direct mandate for maritime security, it supports departments and agencies, such as DND, the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency in their security and enforcement activities, providing vessels, information, maritime expertise and traffic information, including conducting joint law enforcement patrols with the RCMP on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Coast Guard also contributes to maritime security through its automatic identification system, which enhances surveillance and the identification of vessels in the Great Lakes and offshore.

The Coast Guard and its precursors have supported Canada's northern sovereignty since 1903 when the department of marine and fisheries began sovereignty patrols in the Arctic. Today the Coast Guard deploys seven icebreakers to the Arctic each year. These vessels are typically the first to arrive in late June and the last to leave in November. They deliver not only Coast Guard programs, but also food, fuel and other supplies to remote sites and communities where commercial ships do not venture.

The Coast Guard also deploys several other ships in the Arctic to provide navigational services and to support scientific research. This Arctic presence is reinforced through the agency's base in Hay River, Northwest Territories, seasonal marine communication centres in Iqaluit and Inuvik, and storage sites in 14 communities for equipment to contain marine spills and other environmental hazards.

The fleet supports DFO efforts to fulfill its mandate in many ways. For example, DFO conservation and protection officers use Coast Guard vessels to patrol fishing areas and conduct inspections at sea. The fleet also enables a range of DFO scientific research, including fisheries population surveys, oceanographic surveys in support of climate research and hydrographic surveys for charting or providing platforms like the CCGS Amundsen, which returned from a 14-month Arctic scientific expedition last October.

A number of other government departments also turn to the Coast Guard for important vessel support to fulfill their own mandates. I have already mentioned the Coast Guard's growing role in delivering maritime security services in partnership with the RCMP and DND.

In addition, Natural Resources Canada conducts marine geology from Coast Guard ships and Environment Canada acquires much meteorological information from weather buoys launched from Coast Guard vessels. Canadian Coast Guard ships are critical to priority missions, such as seabed mapping. These commitments give the Coast Guard an even more prominent role within the federal government and on our waters.

I would now like to talk about the important investments our government is making in the Canadian Coast Guard fleet. Rising maritime traffic, technological advances, heightened national security and border security concerns, climate change effects on water levels and longer shipping seasons are placing new demands on the Coast Guard and its services.

After many years of neglect by the previous government, the Conservative government made an important choice to invest in this important asset. In the past three budgets, our government has invested $1.4 billion to acquire up to 17 new large vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard. Twelve will replace existing vessels that will be taken out of service and five will be additions to the fleet. All of these procurement processes are under way.

In February, the Government of Canada once again signaled the importance of the Canadian Coast Guard to both Canadians and to the federal agenda. As part of the Government of Canada's economic action plan, the Canadian Coast Guard received $175 million over two years for small boats and to conduct vessel life extensions and additional repairs on our larger vessels.

This means our Coast Guard will have more modern, safer equipment that it can rely on to get the job done. It means that there will be hundreds of jobs created or maintained in the shipbuilding industry as proud Canadian workers assist in the revitalization of our Coast Guard. It means that millions of dollars will be injected into communities that rely on shipbuilding as a means of economic sustainability, ensuring thousands of Canadians can remain in their home towns without having to look elsewhere for employment, which--

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Denise Savoie]

Order. The member has five minutes left to ask questions in order to give the minister the opportunity to answer.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

--which, Madam Chair, is a far cry from the Liberal record when it comes to the Canadian Coast Guard. For 13 years Liberal government after Liberal government let our Coast Guard deteriorate, ships were left rusting in the harbour, the fleet was severely underfunded, and morale was low--

[The Deputy Chair, NDP, Denise Savoie]

Order. The hon. member must now proceed to question the minister.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Madam Chair, this is a significant period of growth for the Canadian Coast Guard and we should be proud of the direction in which it is going, so our government's continued support for the Coast Guard fleet will ensure that it can continue to keep the country's waters safe, accessible and secure for the benefit of Canadians across the country.

I have a few questions for the minister.

As the minister knows, British Columbia and British Columbians are very proud of their pristine wilderness areas and impressive streams. We have mountains and the incredible Pacific Ocean. I, myself, have a strong connection with the Fraser River, which is in my riding.

As with many Canadians, we struggle with the need to balance economic development with preservation of the environment. In times of economic downturn or a global recession, it is vital that we find new jobs for Canadians, but it is also very important that we do it in a way that respects the environment.

There are many government departments which have a role to play in doing this and we also partner with the provinces. Would the minister please tell me and perhaps clarify the role that Fisheries and Oceans would play in protecting the environment while supporting much needed economic development?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, DFO and the Canadian Coast Guard recognize that a responsible approach to preserving a healthy environment and addressing the challenge of climate change is needed to sustain Canada's economic prosperity. In fact, the pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act are among the most powerful legal instruments available to protect Canada's waters and aquatic life forms.

We are working with our clients to raise public awareness, create policies, regulations and partnerships, and monitor compliance with requirements to protect fish habitat, and when required, to take enforcement action.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Madam Chair, I am relieved to hear that so much effort is being made to partner with others. That is usually the way that best solutions are found.

To follow up, I have heard at certain times in B.C. that we need marine protected areas. I am also wondering if the minister could please tell me more about the marine protected areas in Canada.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, DFO is working with provincial and territorial partners to develop a national network of marine protected areas by 2012. We have already designated seven marine protected areas with several more to follow.

Our government has provided an additional $61 million to create these marine protected areas. We are also working on the Pacific north coast, in the integrated management area called PNCIMA. It is in the early stages of extensive consultation, but we are making progress, which is even lauded by David Suzuki.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Madam Chair, Coast Guard ships are deployed to support scientific research in the Arctic every year from late June to early November. I understand that the Canadian Coast Guard deploys a total of seven icebreakers to the Arctic, providing escort services to delivering vital food, fuel and other supplies to remote sites and northern communities where commercial ships do not venture. These vessels deliver a range of Coast Guard programs.

I believe these vessels also support a significant amount of scientific research. Could the minister please provide more details on the Coast Guard's role in supporting Arctic science?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, hon. members will no doubt be familiar with the International Polar Year, IPY, which is a project that was conducted across the Arctic in 2007-08.

Our Coast Guard science icebreaker, the Amundsen, spent a record 15 months in the Arctic for the International Polar Year, making port only twice during that period. She sailed for 450 days, travelled close to 32,000 nautical miles and hosted more than 400 scientists in that time, so we are heavily involved in Arctic science.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Madam Chair, I thank the minister for being available tonight. She has been grilled now for a number of hours, but it is a very important procedure within the House of Commons to have these estimates and ask questions of the minister. It is kind of like an extended question period of a few hours, but it allows us both the answers we need to hear and sometimes the answers we do not want to hear. I appreciate the minister allowing this grilling tonight.

I am the grandson of a fisher and I come from British Columbia. My questions for the department are going to be specifically oriented to the Pacific region. We have an overall departmental budget of $1.6 billion. I would like to ask the minister, what percentage of that is spent in the Pacific region?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, I will very quickly get these stats out. Fifteen percent of the budget is spent in the Pacific region.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Madam Chair, I would like to have the actual dollar figure of moneys that are spent in the Pacific region. Could the minister also indicate the percentage of the overall staff component across the country that is allocated to the Pacific region?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, from our main budget estimates, that is $250 million. Give us just one moment to find the staff component.

[The Acting Speaker, NDP, Denise Savoie]

Would the hon. member for Burnaby—New Westminster like to ask another question while the staff and minister are looking?

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Madam Chair, I will go to subsequent questions because I know that the figures are there. It is just a matter of digging them up and she has some assistance over there.

Looking at the overall monetary allocation for docks and small craft harbours going into British Columbia and fish hatcheries as well, how does the allocation of $250 million break down broadly in each of the spending categories?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, I believe we are spending $8 million to upgrade hatcheries in British Columbia. That was part of the upgrades of our laboratories. For small craft harbours, I believe the spending will be just over $20 million in this fiscal year in British Columbia.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Madam Chair, coming back to the issue of how the $250 million global budget breaks down, the fish hatchery question was not about the upgrade but more about the overall operational costs in the Pacific region for the fiscal year.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Madam Chair, we do provide $26 million on an annual basis for the salmon enhancement program in British Columbia. Whether that takes into account the physical operation and the electricity of the hatcheries, it will take us a minute to dig that up.