Mr. Speaker, the Swedish Maritime Administration is replacing its fleet of search and rescue helicopters from the same manufacturer of the Cormorants used by the Canadian Forces for search and rescue in Canada.
This group is the authority for maritime and aeronautical search and rescue services in Sweden where, like in Canada, rescue helicopters are on standby for search and rescue operations both at sea and over land. There the comparison ends.
Sweden is only one-twentieth the size of Canada and its population is less than a third of ours. Yet they have five primary SAR stations with helicopters, while we only have four. They are on duty 24/7, all year, and must have a helicopter in the air within 15 minutes after they have been alerted. In Canada, the response standard is 30 minutes from 8 o'clock to 4 o'clock on weekdays and two hours at all other times.
In June, a specific motion to adopt a 30-minute response standard, 24/7, year-round, was before the House and the Conservatives, every one of them, voted against it.