Mr. Speaker, first, the Quebec City centre is not a “sub-centre”, it is a major search and rescue centre. It will not be as easy to close as other centres elsewhere in the country. It is a major centre, the only one in the country that is officially bilingual. I am not sure that it will be possible to provide the same high-quality services in French as before.
Expanding the Halifax centre and relocating the Trenton centre, as well as setting up two relay sites, will call for major spending that was not planned initially. They said they would scrimp here and there to save $1 million. But to date, we know it has cost at least three times more. The logistics cost so much that scrimping here and there makes no sense.
We have to realize that far too much money has been spent to date. To make sure that francophones are safe on our navigable waterways throughout Canada, the best thing is to keep the Coast Guard search and rescue centre in Quebec City open year-round, with no changes, for everyone’s benefit. In Trenton and Halifax they do not find this funny.