Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of a number of residents of St. John's East, St. John's South, and some other ridings in Newfoundland and Labrador, in opposition to the closure of the marine rescue sub-centre in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
The petitioners are asking the Government of Canada to acknowledge and understand that the closure of the centre will mean that services will suffer and lives will be put at risk. They note that the rescue centre is responsible for 900,000 square kilometres of ocean and nearly 29,000 kilometres of coastline. The importance of this centre, particularly the local knowledge of the rescue coordinators, has been pointed out many times.
The result of this closure and the closure in Quebec City will be that instead of having six rescue coordinators on duty at any one time, the number will be cut in half, down to three, with a resulting loss of the marine rescue coordinators' local knowledge in St. John's, both of the coastline and the fishers and people engaged in marine activities, which is very valuable and useful in saving lives.