Natural Resources committee  I believe what you're referring to, Mr. Andrews, is the Turner report, and the Turner report has been received by government. We are currently reviewing it, and I would expect that within a matter of a few weeks we would have our response on that document out to the public.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity. As you've indicated, my name is Shawn Skinner, and I'm the Minister of Natural Resources for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before your committee today. My opening remarks will touch briefly on the impact petroleum development has had on Newfoundland and Labrador.

National Defence committee  It is the federal government's mandate to provide the service. That's simply the way it is. You're not providing it. You need to provide it to a better standard. I indicated in my earlier remarks that if you are willing to look at restructuring it and you feel there's some role for others to play, I'd be more than happy to do that.

National Defence committee  Well, I think cost certainly is something that we all have to consider as elected officials, but I'm more inclined to say to you, Mr. Harris, that I think the amount of resources we have available to us at a federal level, at a provincial level, and at a private level in terms of companies operating, and in terms of the companies that are exploiting the resources off our shores, in terms of resources that they have available to them...it may mean looking at how we restructure ourselves to be able to respond to emergencies as they occur.

National Defence committee  The expectation, to put it simply, is that the level of search and rescue response time that is acceptable is the one that Commissioner Wells recommended through the offshore helicopter inquiry, which is basically no more than 30 minutes. The provincial position is that, upon the review of this committee and the presentations that are being made to it, we would expect that the federal government will, through its resources--as I indicated earlier in response to a question--look at restructuring how it deploys SAR resources to the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador so that we have no more than a 30-minute response time.

National Defence committee  Yes. First of all, I would say to you that the challenges you throw out are certainly ones that I think we all share a concern over. The purpose of today's presentation, speaking for myself, is to outline to you what we believe the base of the service level should be. Operationally, how that is deployed, where it's deployed from, and who pays for it I think will require further research and further discussion.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. It is my pleasure to be here today and to have the opportunity to speak to representatives of the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence during this hearing on search and rescue response times. This is an important issue. I commend the Standing Committee on National Defence for taking the time to review it in such detail.