Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out that the unemployment rate is rising in the Maritimes and eastern Quebec.
The Conservative government is closing the Quebec City marine rescue sub-centre, the only officially bilingual search and rescue centre in Canada. Consequently, there will no longer be a centre that can respond satisfactorily to the distress calls of fishers, mariners and boaters in Gaspé, the Magdalen Islands, and other communities in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Why endanger the lives of the inhabitants of Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands?
The Commissioner of Official Languages was very clear in his investigation report: Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not consider the language requirements of maritime search and rescue coordinators. The Commissioner has recommended that the Quebec centre remain open until the language requirements are met.
Furthermore, he recommended that Fisheries and Oceans Canada inform coastal communities of the measures that will be taken to respect their language rights. To date, we have not heard what the department will do to ensure that language rights will be respected. Why the delays? Does the department not want to implement the recommendations of the Commissioner of Official Languages ?
The Conservative government stated more than once that it was sure its closure procedure would be able to ensure the necessary language services, and that everything would go ahead with no problems. Considering the fiasco of medical calls transferred to Italy, which happened because of the hasty closure of the St. John's centre, I very much doubt it.
I am very worried indeed about the closure of the Quebec City centre. Imagine the situation: the Conservatives’ search and rescue system depends on a backup service in Italy. It defies all the laws of logic. To ensure they will be understood, will people in the Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands have to learn Italian? Frankly, people in our region are wondering about that.
The Conservative government is closing the Marine Communications and Traffic Services Centre in Rivière-au-Renard. As a result, there will be a great loss of local knowledge. The people who work in Rivière-au-Renard do not want to be relocated. They will try to find work locally, in an area that already has a very high unemployment rate, as I said at the beginning of my speech. Once again, the unemployment rate is going up, not down.
We lose local expertise when we lose people who are familiar with the geography and the local resources that can respond to a distress call. Clearly, this is going to increase the time it takes to assist people in the Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands who are in distress. I would like the government to tell us how it is going to offset this clear loss that will jeopardize the lives of fishers and pleasure boaters.
The Minister has often said that local expertise would be retained. How does he plan to arrange for the knowledge of people at the MCTS Centre in Rivière-au-Renard to be retained, if many of them refuse to be relocated to other service centres that are staying open?
The Trenton Centre will take years to develop expertise in local conditions, and even then, the employees will never have a better understanding of the situation than the people who live in our region. It is a question of logic. Why does the government not see it? The MCTS Centre in Rivière-au-Renard and the marine rescue centre in Quebec City are crucial elements of the marine rescue service. They have been tried and tested many times. The people of the Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands depend on them.
Will the Conservative government take into account the fact that the loss of local expertise and the insufficient language requirements at the Trenton Centre will endanger the lives of people in distress?